Patterns

Learning about patterns is a basic skill that all kindergarten and first grade students work on. There are so many activities which can help student grasp the concept of easy and then more complicated patterns. Last winter I found this free Skittles pattern students could practice on. It was helpful to guide my students in this process, then go around and assess their patterns.

Recently I learned that music and math go hand-in-hand, especially when teaching about patterns. I came across a very interesting article while taking a creative process course. In Patterns of Music (and article published in the Young Children January 2012 edition), I learned that infants recognize patterns—be it a heart beat, being rocked or patted, or a song. As they grow, toddlers become attached to songs that have patterns, such as Old McDonald Had a Farm.  By kindergarten, children are learning that patterns can be complex.

The Patterns of Music article gave an example of a line up song in which the students go through the colors in a repeated song. Those students wearing a shirt of that color would line up when their color was named.  The song was easy for the students to learn because it followed a very predictable pattern. Students didn't even realize they were doing math through the line up song!