One of the biggest thrills for me is watching how excited toddlers and preschool children get when learning! I had a wonderful time with paper, stickers, and a preschooler and a toddler while they made patterns.
I brought dinosaur stickers. Both these children love dinosaurs so they are excited to get dinosaur stickers that were “fuzzy”, too. This is the pattern the preschool child made.
The toddler had fun just placing the stickers on the paper. Then when he noticed the preschooler making patterns, he wanted to do it, too!
Making and recognizing patterns is a math skill which is cognitive learning. Recognizing patterns is also important in problem-solving skill development.
A definition for a pattern is any sequence that repeats at least 2 times. A simple pattern is the AB pattern. She puts a green dino sticker down, then an orange dino sticker. Now she repeats with the green dino sticker and then the orange dino sticker. It’s so fun to watch young child share this pattern with you, the adult.
Watch as children start to create more complex patterns such as ABC, ABC and AABBCC, AABBCC, and ABCC, ABCC, etc. As children learn to make patterns, their ability to predict increases. I like to ask children how they decided to make their pattern. It’s wonderful for them to explain their thought process.
Enjoy as the children show off!
