Lesson 6

Name Patterns

Est. Class Sessions: 1

Developing the Lesson

Explore Name Grids. Begin the activity by telling students they will use the Name Grid page in the Student Activity Book to create patterns with their first names. Using a display of the Name Grid page, demonstrate how to create a name-grid pattern by writing a sample first name (preferably not 5 or 10 letters long) in the top row of the grid, one letter in each box, from left to right. When you reach the end of the row, continue to the next row, as shown in Figure 1. After you complete two or three rows, use a crayon or marker to highlight the last letter each time it appears.

Ask students to describe the highlighted pattern.

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  • Do you see any patterns in the columns going up and down? What do you notice? (Some columns go shaded, not shaded, shaded, not shaded, and so on. It's an ABAB pattern going down, only it's an NONO pattern. Other columns do ONON.)

Ask students to use the Name Grid page in the Student Activity Book to make a grid pattern using their first name. When students finish, have them highlight the last letter of their name each time it appears.

Ask:

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  • Does anyone see a pattern in their name grid?
  • Who else has a pattern just like [student 1]?

Write the names of these students with the same pattern on the board.

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  • What do you notice?
  • Does someone have a different pattern?
  • Who else has a pattern like [student 2]?

Write the names of these students with the same pattern on the board.

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  • How is [student 1's] pattern different from [student 2's]? Why is it different? (Possible response: They have different numbers of letters in their names and the pattern is different.)
Student Guide:
Student Activity Book: 259 260
Answers
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SG_Mini
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X
SG_Mini
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Master:
Filling in a name grid for John
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