Repeating Pattern

Introduce Repeating Patterns. Explain to students that they are going to make "kid patterns." Direct five students to line up in a girl, boy, girl, boy pattern. Ask students to describe patterns they see in this line. Students may name the girl, boy pattern or other patterns represented by clothing, body positions, and so forth. When all the patterns have been mentioned, select a group of six different students to represent a girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, boy pattern. Ask students to identify patterns they see. Create new patterns for students to identify. Some ideas are listed below. See Figure 1 for an example.

• hands up, hands down
• plain shirt, patterned shirt
• eyes open, eyes shut
• buttons, no buttons
• sitting, standing
• arms crossed, arms hanging down, arms in back
• socks, no socks
• facing front, facing back
• gym shoes, sandals
• smiling, frowning

Extend Repeating Patterns. After students have practiced identifying kid patterns, encourage them to extend the patterns. Create a smile, smile, frown pattern. Use Sample Dialog 1 to guide your discussion of extending patterns.

Invite three or more volunteers to extend the line by adding more repeating units, smile, smile, frown. Have the students extend other patterns.

Explain to students that they have been making repeating patterns. The part that gets repeated is the pattern unit—in this case, smile, smile, frown. Encourage students to find repeating patterns in the classroom.

Students might notice patterns on clothing, on the calendar, or in the tiles on the floor or walls. Frequently, students will assume that any ordered design is a pattern. Use their examples to introduce the difference between a pattern and a design. See the Mathematics in this Unit section and the Content Note about Patterns and Designs for further information.