Patterns! Patterns! Patterns!

This year we have started each morning with patterns.

The kids come in and we have about 15 minutes of making patterns - sometimes I nominate a feature to explore, other times the kids get to make their own. Sometimes they work in groups, sometimes they work alone. 

It always starts off looking like this...

Yesterday after 15 minutes it looked like this...

Busy weren't they? 

Let's look a bit closer at what the kids produced...

A nice mix of materials. 

I do like the red and blue "zipper" pattern made from diamonds and trapezia.

More nice things including an interesting spiral arrangement. 

Love what can happen with a hexagon.

This looks like a screen shot from "Space Invaders" or Galaga"

So much happening here:

1,1 patterns

2,1 patterns

1, 1, 1 patterns

3, 1, 1 patterns

3, 1 patterns

This 15 minutes each day has become significant for my class for several reasons:

1. It is fun - it encourages the kids to get to school on time. They know if they turn up 10 minutes late they will miss something that they enjoy.

2. They are learning from the minute they walk in the door - at the start of the year, there were students who couldn't make a simple pattern AB repeat. Now they are making much more complicated patterns for themselves or building on a pattern started by someone else.

3. It is connected - when we make patterns, we are using language, we are learning social skills, we are developing mathematical understanding, we are building concepts that will apply across all subjects, such as shape, growth, prediction, expectation, observation, generalisation, perspective, form, and so much more. 

Have a go - see what your kids can do.