Nature Walk = Mandala Art

Go for a walk and collect all sorts of leaves, bits of bark, pebbles, small flowers or petals, etc. Than make a mandala.

PATTERNING!

Patterning With Kinesthetic Movement

Another way to work on learning patterning is by repetition using movement.

Put your kids in a circle, either sitting or standing. Give them a pattern to repeat. Ex: AB

You start off by saying A, then hand the ball to the child next to you, who says B. They hand it over to the next child, who repeats A, and so on until you've gone all the way around the circle.

You can start over by making the ball go in the opposite direction, which challenges the child's mind to figure out what their letter is going to be.

Later on, you can increase the complexity of this lesson by giving another pattern, such as AAB and so forth once the class is ready to learn it.

Patterning With Nature

My kiddos had fun doing this. We combined science with math with patterning.

We went outside and scrounged for natural items: flowers, twigs, rocks, leaves, grass, etc. Some even found some bird feathers.

Then we went inside and glued them to sentence strips, labeling the patterns like you see above.

We re-did this little trick as we got into more complicated patterning, and when we extended our patterns, by using different colored fall leaves as our differences. 

Things to Do When You're Stuck in a Professional Development Workshop - Patterning

A few years ago, I started taking some materials with me whenever I had to attend a professional development workshop. I simply cannot sit there and listen. Of course, I take notes, but I also want to come away from the meeting with something more substantial. Especially if the workshop is not one of those Make-It-And-Take-It kinds.

Using pre-cut sentence strips and a box of markers, I've made these neat little pattern guides. I can use them to teach patterns with colored bears, pom-poms, or whatever. Or I can make a quick game with them using a die. The possibilities are endless!

Patterning With Beads and Straws

Before we left for the holidays, I let the kids make their own pattern necklaces. It was a great way to review AB, AAB, ABB, and ABC patterns using beads and cut colored straws.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize that dental floss is the perfect thing for stringing beads! It easily threads through the smallest holes, and it's strong enough to hold the weight!

ABC Patterning (and Freebie!)

To review (and get a grade for patterning), I came up with this little game.

Click this link to download the free PDF of the game pieces. I used colored rocks I got from the dollar store, and an empty tissue box was just perfect for them to pull out their pattern strips without looking at them first.

Candy Cane Patterns

A great way to review patterning is to have the children make candy canes! After reviewing the different kinds of patterns we've learned so far (AB, AAB, ABB, AABB), each child gets a sheet of construction paper with a single black line drawn on it (for them to follow.) They also get a strip of red and a strip of white construction paper. They tear the strips into small pieces and glue them onto the pattern (fine motor skills!). When they bring their finished work to me, I have them identify which pattern they used.