Patterns All Around

This journal provided some interesting ideas for a variety of pattern activities that would be great to use in the primary classroom.

Paula Filliman
Patterns All Around
Teaching Children Mathematics 5 no5 282-3 Ja '99

Activities
Examine the dot patterns on dominos containing 1 to 6 dots. Pretend that you are a domino manufacturer and that you need to make dominos with 7 through 9 dots. Where will you place the extra dot from 6 to 7? Use "dots" from a paper punch, stick-on dots, or counters to make patterns for 7, 8, and 9 dots. The dots must fit into the same size of square as the 1-through-6 dot pattern. How would you arrange 10, 11, and 12 dots?

Place five counters of one color on a ten-frame, and fill the remaining spaces with another color. Can you make a number sentence to show this sum? Try other ways to fill the ten-frame with two colors. How many ways did you find? How can you tell if you have found them all?
Use two colors of Unifix cubes to show all the ways to make the number 5, such as using four blues and one yellow. Draw pictures of each combination; for example, draw four blues on top of one yellow. Try to make all your pictures the same size. How are the pictures alike? Different? What patterns do you see?

Ask your parents to help you find (1) a game, such as Sorry! or Candyland, with a board that has moves from space to space along a path and (2) a deck of number cards. Choose a sum, and remove all cards greater than that sum. For example, if you choose 9, remove the 10 and higher cards. During your turn, if you draw a 1, you must say the number that goes with 1, which is 8, to make the sum of 9. Move 8 spaces. Would you rather draw a high or low number?

Find at least twenty nickels and a hundreds chart. Place one nickel on the hundreds chart on each number you say as you count by 5s. What does your pattern look like on the chart? Can you describe where the nickels are placed? Which odd numbers are covered by a nickel? Which even numbers?

Draw a number line from 0 through 12. Connect the points at either end, 0 and 12, by drawing an arc. Move to the numbers 1 and 11, and draw another arc. What is the sum of each pair? Continue to connect all the pairs of numbers following this pattern. Are any numbers left unmatched? If you connect an unmatched number to itself, what is the sum? Do this activity on a number line from 0 through 15. What differences do you see? What would happen on a number line from 3 through 15?

Use cubes, dots, or other counters to build two-row rectangular arrays, and observe the pattern of the numbers as you build each successive array. The first array is two rows, with one in each row. Add one counter to each row for a two-by-two array. Continue to build two-row arrays, and name the numbers. What kind are they? Can you put seven counters in a two-row array? Eleven counters? Repeat for three-row rectangular arrays.

Cut several ten-frames from grid paper. Use one ten-frame and count by 2s, recording one number in each square of the frame. What numbers are in the first and sixth squares? Compare the second with the seventh square. What do you notice? Complete separate ten-frames for the multiples of 4, 6, and 8. Are the patterns similar? Is the pattern the same if you count by odd numbers?