Pattern Detectives

Room 11, has  been learning about patterns. To begin the learning journey, I needed to get an idea of what the class already knew about this subject area. Students were asked to make their own pattern. Everyone was able to create a pattern successfully, using materials that repeated in a sequence. M…

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From this activity it was clear the class  needed to learn what made a pattern a pattern and how to create them in different ways.

Together we looked at the idea that every pattern has a rule that repeats itself over and over in a sequence. The rule to a pattern is made up of one or more attributes, like shape and colour. As a class we brainstormed other attributes and this is what some students had to say:

We could go from big to small

Put some things straight and then other things sideways

We could go up, down, up, down

I challenged them to create their own pattern and identify  the pattern’s rule. To do this they had to place a pencil at the end of their rule to show which section of their pattern repeated itself. Some students were able to include 2-3 attributes in their patterns. Here are some of the patterns that were created.

I used colour and size. My rule is pink, purple, purple

Mine is a colour pattern and the rule is yellow, red, blue

Room 11 learnt about how patterns can grow bigger or smaller based on a rule. We looked at examples of growing patterns and students had to identify the rule that allowed them to do this. Students had to create their own growing patterns and explain the rule it followed. Here are some of their examples.


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