Patterns with Beads
Age group
- Early Years (Age 3 to 6)
Curriculum Goal
Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour
Recognize, explore, describe, and compare patterns, and extend, translate, and create them, using the core of a pattern and predicting what comes next (#18).
Related Links
Context
- Students will be in small groups on the carpet.
- Students should have previous experience with patterns and making patterns.
Materials
- Beads of different shapes and colours
- Personal 100s chart (Appendix A)
Lesson
- Explain to students that while they are sitting in groups, they will be making their own patterns with the beads.
- Bring to students’ attention that patterns can go in any direction (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).
- Give each student a hundreds chart.
- Have children create a pattern on the hundreds chart in any direction.
- After students have finished their first pattern, have them describe and explain their pattern to their group.
- Ask students to keep their first pattern on the chart and add to it by making a second pattern.
- Repeat the steps above and have children make as many patterns as they can.
- Take a picture of the patterns they made for documentation.
Look Fors
- How complex are children’s patterns? Are they based on colour, shape, size, or a combination?
- How often do children create patterns in different directions? What happens when they intersect?