Patterns

We have been thinking about patterns for a month. This is the first unit of many in the Investigations curriculum that scaffolds the children's exploration of the foundations of Algebra. The children begin sorting and describing patterns constructed from repeating units. As the years at Sabot continue, the children connect these patterns to numbers and then finally describe the functions based on the sequences.....Algebra.

As the Kindergarten  sort, classify and describe repeating patterns the children are building a foundation to analyze regularities  in math.

We are wide eyed and alert to the patterns that surround us.

N: There are patterns in lightening. and in numbers like even, odd, even and odd.

T: 123,123 and then 123. This is a pattern

T: Doggies squirrel, doggies, squirrels...I did it by animals.

A: I know that patterns can be anything like nature, words, animals and even color patterns but it has to repeat.

We notice the patterns on clothing worn by our friends each day.

ES: Patterns repeat. You have to think what comes next in the pattern.

 When you start a pattern you have to think about what you are going to do. The pattern is in your head but when you write it sometimes it gets mixed up.

We begin with an analogy that the children will understand. A pattern train repeats the same car more than once. 

The children are asked to build onto the pattern train.

Describe the repetitive car? What color cubes are used to build the car and does the order of the color cubes matter?

How many cars are on a particular train?

We then play many games that involve the same concepts.

Finally we ask the children to build trains and record the pattern train, circling the cars in the train.

E: Yeah, if you use a white pop cube it gets messed up (when you record a pattern)

As a way of stretching the children's thinking we set up several provocations. We ask the children to photograph their work so we might notice the progression of their understanding of the materials throughout the weeks.

The children constructed and added color to tessellations 

( any regular pattern that consists of identical areas, which repeat without overlaps or gaps). 

It appears after several weeks of documenting that the opportunity to observe the possibilities for the materials slowly promotes a visual propensity and organization that propels the sophistication of the images created and designed.