Patterning - a Fun Math Activity [FREE PRINTABLE]

Patterns are such a fun and useful early math skill to work on with young children.

Patterning skills help children to make predictions, develop logical, algebraic thinking, and improve their reasoning skills.

It's a fundamental math skill but one that is often overlooked.

So as summer wraps up, I've made a big Ice Cream patterning bundle to fit the season. You can use these sheets with dot markers, stickers, or just colour them in.

Download them here:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0536/5530/6394/files/Ice_Cream_Dot_Patterning_b918df81-fb6b-4875-bd86-316d8646f992.pdf?v=1693324723

Set Up The Activity At Your Child's Level

The bundle has patterning activities for children age 2-5+ so choose the ones that are appropriate for your child's current development.

The easiest activities are at the top and they progressively get more difficult:

1. Begin by offering your child the sheets with all blank dots on the cones and simply have them work on getting their sticker or dot marker into the circle (pages 1 or 6).
   
   
2. Offer the AB pattern that is mostly complete (page 2) so your child will only fill out the last two dots.
   
   
3. Offer the ABC pattern that is half complete (page 4) and have your child complete the second half, the repeat of the pattern.
   
   
4. Show your child only one horizontal row of page 3 (i.e. orange/red) and offer them page 1 (the empty dots) to replicate the pattern looking at the example. You can cut out the horizontal rows to seperate them or block them off using a blank sheet of paper.
   
   
5. Repeat activity #4 using example page 5 (i.e. red/orange/yellow), again having your child replicate the entire row on a blank page (page 1) by looking at the reference pattern.
   
   
6. Do activities 2 - 5 with all the 8 ice cream cone sheets, starting with AB pattern, followed by the ABCD pattern.
   
   
7. Offer your child the blank pages and have them make their own patterns.