patterning math centers: find hands-on and engaging math activities for your kindergarten students. Reinforce patterning with these easy to prep centers.
We began to learn about patterning last week, and we have had fun using different materials to practice making patterns. I love to use hands-on activities when we are learning how to pattern. Letting students use concrete materials helps them to understand and build their skills.
Here are some of the centers I put out for students. Read to the end of this post to download some free anchor posters.
Flower patterns
This flower pattern activity has been a real hit in our classroom. My students always love anything with beads.
Once the flowers are made, it is easy to set up this activity and students are not only working on their patterning skills, they are also strengthening their fine motor muscles. Creating a pattern following a rule can be difficult at first, but it becomes easier the more you practice, and these flowers are a fun way to work on it!
my patterns
We continued to work with concrete materials, and with this center we had students record their finished patterns. We encouraged them to identify the core and the rule of each of their patterns.
Our class used a variety of materials to make their different patterns (pompoms, gems, links, blocks, mini erasers and sticks) and they did a great job recording their work. This is a good way to assess how well your students understand patterning, and where they might need help.
extend the pattern
Extending patterns is also an important skill to learn, and these task cards are perfect for practicing! Students have to draw the next two shapes in the pattern. We also had our students identify the rule and the core on each of the cards.
loose parts
This loose parts center was set up to encourage our class to make their own patterns with a variety of materials. The different materials are great to encourage them to use their imagination and to create a range of patterns.
posters
We use these posters on our math wall to help our class identify different types of patterns and their cores. We like to hear them use the math language when they are working and these posters are a great reminder.
You can download them for free in my Resource Library as a free download!
If you like these centers, you can get them in my Easy Print and Prep Math Centers Bundle (it will take you through each of your math strands, and they are so easy to set up!), or you can get the patterning centers on their own:
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