Skills Covered

How to Use This Pack

Five pages that take repeating patterns to 2nd grade: longer cores, spots far down the line, and one pattern shown many ways. Page 1 has patterns with cores of three to five: circle the core and write it with letters. On page 2 each pattern stops, then asks for a numbered spot further on, like the 15th; students count on through the core instead of drawing every one. Page 3 shows a row of animals and four patterns made of shapes, letters and numbers: circle every one with the same letters. Page 4 has one thing out of place in each row, in pictures, letters and numbers. Page 5 asks for far spots in short pattern stories, then makes an A B B C pattern with shapes and writes it with numbers.

In the Classroom

Line up children as a pattern, like stand, sit, sit, stand, sit, sit, and ask who will be 10th before counting. Show the trick: the core is 3 long, so the 9th child ends a core and the 10th starts the next one. Then show the same pattern with claps and snaps, with letters, and with numbers.

At Home

Make a pattern with spoons and forks or with colored blocks, and ask your child to name it with letters. Then ask what the 12th one will be, and check by building it.

Tips for Success

• Find the core first: the part that repeats
• Name the core with letters: the first thing is A, the next new thing is B
• Patterns with the same letters are the same pattern
• To find a far spot, count on by the length of the core
• Read a pattern out loud to hear a mistake