Exploring Patterns in PK4

Button pattern

Ms. Hannah’s PreK-4 students are looking for all the different ways that they can make patterns … with their bodies and all sorts of materials.

If you get the pattern wrong you might have to take out the piece that made it wrong.
– Toumani

From Ms. Hannah:

patterns-pk4Every year I introduce patterns to 4-year-olds by teaching them how to make them through movement. Then I make the connection to materials and how we can make patterns with the various toys in our classroom. This year Carter beat me to it.

I had noticed Carter at the Daily Schedule Chart as soon as I put it up. He was instantly drawn to a chart that would tell him the, now predictable, pattern of the day. He had disliked transitions but once I put up the pattern of the day he began using the chart to feel more in charge of his day.

One day at Legos while everybody was building snakes, trains and dinosaurs, Carter put his legos in a green yellow pattern.

yellow-green lego pattern

I decided to bring it to the children at morning meeting. They wanted to try making two color patterns with other materials so that day we made a new center, Patterns. Several children chose to go there throughout choice time. The next day we added patterns to our morning arrival routine. We are now rotating materials and looking for all the different ways that we can make patterns in our classroom. I am curious… After exploring the making of simple patterns with our bodies and classroom materials, what do the children understand about them?

Here’s how the children show and explain their exploration of patterns in their own words:


PK4-patterns-Slide06 PK4-patterns-Slide07 PK4-patterns-Slide08 PK4-patterns-Slide09 PK4-patterns-Slide10 PK4-patterns-Slide11 PK4-patterns-Slide12 PK4-patterns-Slide13 PK4-patterns-Slide14 PK4-patterns-Slide15 PK4-patterns-Slide16