Investigations

Materials:

  • small objects (e.g. buttons, pebbles, coins)

Instructions:

  • Create a growing pattern and ask your child to explain how the pattern grows. For example, he or she might explain, “You add 1 more penny on the bottom each time” or “The pattern is adding 1 each time.”
  • Try creating some other growing patterns.
  • Create the first four terms of a growing pattern and ask your child to extend the pattern by constructing the next three terms. Ask your child to explain how he or she was able to extend (grow) the pattern.

Variations:

  • Create some shrinking patterns
  • Create a growing pattern using sounds (e.g., stomp stomp clap, stomp stomp clap, clap, etc.