Exploring patterns
A thinking mathematically targeted teaching opportunity exploring representations of patterns with a repeating core
Syllabus
Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from Mathematics K–10 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023
Outcomes
- MAO-WM-01
- MAE-FG-01
Collect resources
You will need:
- coloured pencils or markers
- paper or your workbook
- 30 objects such as blocks or counters to make some repeating patterns
Exploring patterns 1
Watch Exploring patterns 1 video (13:42).
Michelle
[Screen reads ‘Patterning 1’]
Welcome back, little mathematicians.
We're here to talk today about one of the most important things and one of our favourite things about mathematics: patterns.
[Screen reads: Let’s investigate!]
So, we've been working on this idea that a pattern is something that repeats over and over and over again. Like these stars - pink, blue, pink, blue, pink, blue.
[Screen reads: what is a pattern? Something that repeats over and over and over again. Screen shows 6 stars in a row, alternating in colour from blue to pink.]
But are these ones a pattern?
[Screen shows 6 stars in a row in the following colour order: one pink, one blue, one green, one red, one yellow, one pink.]
No, that's right they're all stars, but we can't see anything repeating over and over and over in the colours.
What about this picture? Does this have something that repeats over and over and over again?
[Screen shows a dog and 2 paw prints.]
Um, I agree with you, but this one.
What about this one?
[Screen shows a pattern of a dog, 2 paw prints, a dog, 2 paw prints, a dog, 2 paw prints.]
Yes, it's a pattern, isn't it? Dog, footprint, footprint, dog, footprint, footprint, dog, footprint, footprint?
But if we look at it like this, is this one a pattern yet?
[Screen shows a dog and 2 paw prints.]
You're right, it could be the beginning of a pattern, but because we can't see anything going over and over and over again, we don't know yet. So that's a really important thing about patterning, that we see the core repeating over and over and over.
[Screen shows a dog and 2 paw prints, a dog and 2 paw prints, and a dog and 2 paw prints with each group of dog and paw prints highlighted into a group.]
So, let's explore some patterns.
What I have hiding underneath here is a pattern that I've made using shapes. So, it's important that you know that it's a pattern, so you're looking for the part that repeats over and over and over again, so we can already see this shape here.
[Screen shows a small square and a piece of paper covering shapes in the row.]
What's that one there?
That's right, it's a square. And what I wonder is what do you predict might come next?
Ah, I hear what you're thinking, so some of you are thinking it could be a circle. Some of you are thinking it could be a rectangle, some of you were thinking it could be a hexagon, and I heard some people say they thought it could be a triangle.
Let's have a look.
It's a triangle!
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a triangle.]
So, in my pattern, it's starting off with a square and a triangle and we know that it's a pattern, so there's something inside of this has to be repeating over and over and over.
Do you know what comes next for sure?
That's right, you don't yet, do you? Cause all we know is it's got a square and a triangle, so we haven't seen the part yet that repeats over and over and over so we could have a pretty good prediction though.
What are you thinking this time? Oh, I see. Some of you are thinking that what might come next is a square.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a square down which she then removes.]
Some of you are thinking that what might come next would be a circle.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a circle down which she then removes.]
Some of you are thinking it could be a triangle.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a triangle down which she then removes.]
Let's see what happens.
A square, that's right. So square, triangle, square.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a square.]
What do you think could be next in my pattern?
Let's see what happens.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a triangle.]
Oh, a triangle, are you starting to feel more confident about how this pattern is emerging?
Yes, OK, I see why because we now have square, triangle, square, triangle.
But it's always good to check to see what comes next so that we can see something over and over and over again.
So, let's see.
Ah, you think it's a square.
Let's see what happens, oh.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a square.]
It is! And what do you think might come next now?
A triangle? And you're feeling much more confident. Let's see.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a triangle.]
It's a triangle, so let's see. We now have square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle and we can see that it repeats over and over and over.
So, we can pretty much trust now that we've discovered what the core of our pattern is.
That's right. Is that what you were thinking too? The square and the triangle?
So, let's see what comes next.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the paper to reveal a square.]
It has a square, oh and, hmm, I wonder what would come here if we continued our pattern?
[Screen shows Michelle placing a red counter at the end of the row.]
Square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle, square.
Ah, I heard you too.
A triangle.
[Screen shows Michelle removing the counter and replacing it with a triangle.]
So, in this sort of a pattern can you see where the core is?
Yeah, the square followed by the triangle, and a way that we can check this as mathematicians is to move our shapes around.
So, what I like to do in my head is to or actually with my equipment is to move things around so that I can check that I can see the core, cause sometimes we can work with some really tricky patterns or it's hard to work out what the repeating core is.
So as a mathematician I can always think flexibly about these situations.
So, what I might do is start by, if I think my core is a square and a triangle, I can move down my other square and triangle, and my next square and triangle and my next square and triangle, and what I'm hoping to see is that all of the shapes or the objects here are the same and these ones here also have the same attribute.
[Screen shows Michelle moving a square and triangle underneath the first square and triangle and she continues doing this for the other 2 squares and triangles so they now form 2 vertical rows of 4 squares and 4 triangles.]
So, in this case, all of my shapes are squares, and in this case, all of my shapes are triangles and so I can see that I have a pattern.
The core is a square and a triangle, and that's the part that repeats over and over and over again, and I can move it back into my line to check.
[Screen shows Michelle now moving the squares and triangles back into a horizontal line, in the pattern of square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle.]
I wonder if I could use that strategy, to help me work out what's missing.
Alright, so mathematicians close your eyes.
I can still see some of you, are peeking, I'm going to cover this up.
And let's see.
[Screen shows Michelle covering the pattern whilst she removes a shape.]
OK, so now one of my shapes in my pattern sequence is missing and it's this one.
Right there, sometimes I like to put something in its place so I know this is what's missing and what might it be.
[Screen shows Michelle now placing a counter in the missing space.]
So, can you work it out?
Oh, I can hear you. Some of you think it's a square because you're thinking square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle.
It's really nice reasoning, we could use our strategy of moving our pattern core to check and to prove that it is a square that's missing. So, let's do that.
So, we move this chunk of our core, or our pattern, our core, we move this part, including the bit that's missing and we can move this part down here.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the chunks of pattern, square, triangle, into vertical rows.]
That's right, and now it's really easy for us to see, isn't it? That this part here that's missing should definitely be a square because everything has to be or have the same attributes.
[Screen shows Michelle removing the counter and replacing it with a square.]
That's right, and so if we put this back.
[Screen shows Michelle now moving the shapes back into a horizontal line.]
We can now say this one here that was missing was in fact a square.
[Screen shows Michelle placing the counter on top of the missing square. She removes the counter.]
Do you want to try that again?
OK, close your eyes and just in case, I think I'm going to make this one tricky or challenging, which is really nice cause we love it when our brains sweat as mathematicians, OK?
Oh yeah.
[Screen shows Michelle covering the pattern whilst she removes 2 shapes.]
Alright, little mathematicians. What are you thinking now?
[Screen shows the fourth and seventh shapes in the pattern are now missing.]
Um, that's right, so you can see this time there's 2 objects missing aren't there?
[Screen shows Michelle now placing 2 counters in the empty spaces.]
So, one missing from here, and the other's missing from there.
Um, that's right, and this time it can sometimes be a bit harder to work out what's missing because, we don't get that repeating sort of sound of square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle to help us out because it's this fourth one here, that's missing.
Oh yeah, but we've heard it a few times now, haven't we?
Should we use our strategy of moving our core around to check? Ok.
So, so let's imagine this, where here's what we think our pattern core is, the square and the triangle, well we know it is cause we've established that and we'll move these down to here and this down here and these ones down here and now….
[Screen shows Michelle moving the shapes in groups of 2 underneath the first 2 shapes, creating 2 vertical rows. The first row is made up of squares, the second row is made out of triangles.]
We can see that's right, this one here we should replace with a... triangle, and this one should be a? ...square. That's right!
[Screen shows Michelle placing a square over the counter in the first column and a triangle over the counter in the second column.]
And if I move these back up to here, this one here that we thought was missing was a triangle and this one that was missing is a square.
[Screen shows Michelle now moving the shapes back into a horizontal line and removing the 2 counters which were under the triangle and square.]
It's a really interesting strategy, isn't it? About ways of investigating things that are missing.
I wonder if we could use that on a pattern that's a little bit trickier.
Let's see so I've got some other things here, and I'm going to make myself a pattern – stand by mathematicians.
[Screen shows Michelle covering the pattern whilst she adds additional shapes to form another pattern.]
Whoa, can you see that pattern now?
OK, and what are you thinking, first of all, is the core of our pattern? Should we read it together? OK.
Square, triangle, triangle. square, triangle, triangle. square, triangle, triangle, square, triangle.
Um, so if it was a pattern like before, where we had 2 things in our core, I could move these like this, and already can you see that too?
[Screen shows Michelle moving the third and fourth shapes in the row underneath the first and second.]
Yeah, what's the problem?
Yeah, that's right, this should be a square. If it was still a pattern. So, so that one didn't quite work, I wonder...
[Screen shows Michelle tapping on the shapes showing they are not a pattern. She moves them back into the row.]
Ah, I hear what you're thinking.
You think there might be 3 things inside the core? Let's see.
So, if it goes square, triangle, triangle, these things should move down here.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the pattern cores into rows. Each row has a square and then 2 triangles.]
Ah, does that look better? I see, and these things too? Square, triangle, triangle, and then...square, triangle.
If I wanted to continue my pattern, what would I need next?
Ha, and how do you know that?
Yeah, I was thinking it's really nice thinking Little Mathematicians because, that's right, you can see they're all triangles, and so that would be a triangle to continue my pattern.
[Screen shows a triangle being added to the bottom row to complete the pattern.]
So, let's put this back up here now.
[Screen shows Michelle now moving all the shapes back into a horizontal row in the pattern.]
So, this time my pattern core has a square, triangle, triangle in it. So, 3 things inside it.
And let's see if we can use this strategy of moving, our pattern core around to help us work out what things are missing.
Alright, close your eyes.
Good job.
[Screen shows Michelle covering the pattern whilst she removes a shape.]
OK.
Let's see, so this is the shape that's missing from our pattern now. What do you think it is?
[Screen shows the fifth shape has been removed. Michelle now puts a counter in its place.]
Should it be a square or a triangle?
And can you explain why you think that?
Oh, I could hear someone saying that they imagined moving these things down here. So, if we moved this square down to there that would align.
And if we, this space that's missing here would be underneath a triangle and this one would be underneath a triangle too, so that dot must represent a triangle?
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to each shape and pretending to move them so that they align in 2 vertical rows.]
Huh, I like the way that you're visualising like a mathematician. Let's move this down and check.
Should we move the other parts of our repeating core too? Yeah, so just to make sure.
[Screen shows the repeating cores being moved into alignment in vertical rows.]
Huh? And so, because that's right because the core is in alignment. That part there should be a? Triangle.
[Screen shows a triangle placed on top of the counter.]
Triangle. OK, let's push it back out to see.
Yeah. And that works.
[Screen shows shapes being moved back into a horizontal row in a pattern.]
It's really nice work today little mathematicians.
I wonder if you could go now and make some patterns of your own, repeating patterns of your own and work out and get someone at home to help you work out and draw somewhere, some of the pieces are missing, or have someone make them for you, where some of the parts are missing and you can go and investigate and use your mathematical thinking to help you solve, how to continue a pattern and also how to work out things that are missing from a pattern sequence?
Over to you Little Mathematicians!
[End of transcript]
Instructions
Using your collection of items, try making some repeating patterns of your own where some of the parts are missing or have someone make some patterns for you.
Can you figure out what parts are missing using the strategy of looking for the repeating core?
Draw a repeating pattern.
Take turns drawing a pattern then having another person continue it.
Challenge each other by drawing some with missing parts. Can you work out which parts are missing?
Exploring patterns 2
Watch Exploring patterns 2 video (5:31).
[Screen reads Patterning – 2]
Michelle
Welcome back little mathematicians and you can see, and I can already see you thinking about this pattern that you can see here, or in fact, is it a pattern?
[Screen shows a horizontal line with a pattern of a circle, triangle, circle, triangle, circle, triangle, circle, triangle.]
Because we know we've discovered a few things about patterns.
[Screen shows, a dog and 2 paw prints, a dog and 2 paw prints, and a dog and 2 paw prints, with each collection of, dog and paw prints, highlighted into groups.]
One is, that it has a repeating core and this is the part that repeats over and over and over again, and last time we were together we were playing around with how we could work out what our repeating core is and we discovered that you can see the part that repeats over and over and over again, ‘the repeating core’, by moving objects around to check your thinking, so I already can see or hear that you're thinking about what is the repeating core of this pattern?
[Screen reads: We discovered something more. You can see the part that repeats over and over and over again, ‘the repeating core’ by moving objects to check your thinking.
You can also imagine moving them. This strategy also helps us work out missing parts and extend patterns further.]
I can hear lots of you think that you have found it.
Yeah, that's really good thinking, Little Mathematicians.
It's a circle and a triangle.
That's the core, and it repeats over and over and over and last time we investigated that you can move things down like this and we can use this movement or imagining this movement in our brains, to check that our core, that we found the core of our pattern and that we can then move things back.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the third and fourth shapes, a circle and triangle underneath the first circle and triangle. She continues doing this for the other 2 circles and triangles, so they form 2 vertical rows of 4 circles and 4 triangles, she then moves them back.]
And that this strategy of moving the objects around, either by physically moving them or imagining that they're moving in our brains also helps us work out things like... what part or element of my pattern is now missing? Because if we move these things down...
[Screen shows Michelle removing the third shape. She then moves the shapes into 2 vertical columns, with the first column having a blank space in the second row down.]
That's right, we can see that the circle or a circle belongs here in order for us to have a pattern that has a core that repeats over and over and over.
[Screen shows a circle being placed in the blank space. The shapes are now placed back into a horizontal row in the pattern.]
And so, what we were thinking about today is talking about how we can describe these patterns and then make them in different ways.
Because this pattern has a circle and a triangle, that's the repeating core and I can move this down like this to prove that that's the part of my pattern that is repeating.
[Screen shows shapes being moved into 2 columns. The first column has circles, the second has triangles.]
But what if I didn't have a circle? What if I had wanted to replace them with squares? So, if I move my circles away, I could now put squares here.
[Screen shows Michelle replacing circles with squares and moving the shapes back into a horizontal line.]
And even though my pattern now looks a bit different, actually the core is pretty similar because it still has 2 things in it, and so we could call this a 'two' pattern and some people do, but sometimes it gets really confusing in our brains around do we mean the number 2?
Or are we describing a pattern, and so mathematicians would call a pattern that has 2 parts inside its repeating core an AB pattern.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the shapes into vertical rows.]
This is A and this is B and so it doesn't matter in my AB pattern whether my A represents a square like it does here, or like I had before, if my A represents a circle, and so when I call this an AB pattern, what it allows me to do is think about what are some other AB patterns that I could think about making and patterns that have a similar repeating core?
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to the first square and triangle. She places a sticky note down which reads AB pattern. She then moves the shapes into vertical rows and replaces the squares with circles.]
So sometimes we do this thing at school where we can do things with our bodies like we can say the circle represents a click and the triangle represents a clap.
So, we can say Click, Clap. Click, Clap, click.
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to a circle clicking her fingers, and then pointing to the triangle she claps, she then clicks, claps, clicks, claps, clicks, claps, clicks, claps.]
That's right, and it's still a repeating pattern because yeah, it's got 2 parts, the click, and the clap, 2 different ways of making sound and it repeats over and over and over.
Can you come up with another way, using body sounds?
Ah, I heard someone doing a 'click' with their tongue and a 'stomp' on the floor - so a click, stomp, click, stomp, click, stomp, click, stomp.
[Screen shows Michelle clicking her tongue and stomping her hand on the desk, repeating this 4 times.]
Yeah, and that's an AB pattern too, cause there are 2 parts, that repeat over and over and over.
Well, I wonder if you could go around your house or pick up your book now and what's another way that you could make an AB pattern?
So, we made one here using circles and triangles and we also then said, 'Well, we don't have to have circles, we could have squares and triangles' and it's still an AB pattern.
[Screen shows Michelle removing the circles and replacing them with squares.]
We also said that you could do a click and a clap.
[Screen shows Michelle clicking and clapping her hands 4 times.]
And one of you suggested that you could do a click with your tongue and a stomp.
[Screen shows Michelle clicking her tongue and stomping 4 times.]
Over to you to go see what you can do and make some other AB patterns and draw them down on your notebook and I'm going to go do the same and we'll come back together.
[Screen reads, Your challenge!
Use some things you find at home to make as many AB patterns that you can think of. Draw your patterns in your book or on a piece of paper.]
Over to you Little Mathematicians!
[End of transcript]
Instructions
Using your collection of items from around your home or classroom, try making as many AB patterns as you can.
Draw your patterns in your workbook.
Exploring patterns 3
Watch Exploring patterns 3 video (8:28).
Michelle
[Screen reads ‘Patterning 3’.]
OK, before we get started, welcome back now remember, we've been learning about what a pattern is and we decided that the best definition is that it's something that repeats over and over and over again.
[Screen reads: What is a pattern?
Screen shows a pattern of a circle and square, a circle and square, and a circle and square with each collection of a circle and a square grouped together.]
Screen reads: the part that repeats over and over and over again, is called the repeating core.]
And that the part that repeats over and over and over again, we call the repeating core.
We also found that we can find the repeating core by moving or visualising things moving around.
[Screen shows a pattern of circle, square, circle, square, circle square in a horizontal row. Underneath the first circle and square there are 2 vertical rows. The first vertical row has 3 circles, the second vertical row has 3 squares. Each group of a circle and square in the vertical row is grouped together with a pink box.]
And that helps us see the part that's repeating. Ok, let's go and talk about how you went, right?
Welcome back.
Well yes, so we went around and found some things that we found in our home that we could make some other AB patterns with and in this one we know that we were looking at making our AB pattern, we were looking at the attribute of shape, so we were looking at a square to a triangle, a square to a triangle or before we had a circle and a triangle for example.
[Screen shows a horizontal line with a pattern of a square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle. On the right is a sticky note with ‘AB pattern’ written on it. On the left is a sticky note with the word ‘shape’ on it.]
In this case, when we went for a walk today, we collected some interesting things that we thought were interesting rocks.
And so, we think we could make these into a pattern too because some of our rocks are little and some of them are quite big.
[Screen shows 5 grey rocks and 5 small white pebbles.]
So, in fact, these guys are quite heavy, and these ones are quite light too, but it's hard for you to feel that so we'll, but it's easier for you to see that this guy is quite big, and these ones are quite little and so we could make a pattern using these things too.
What do you?
How would you make it?
Yeah, we were thinking the same thing, that you could do big, small, big, small, big. Yeah, small, big, and small.
[Screen shows, Michelle putting the rocks and pebbles in a pattern: rock, pebble, rock, pebble, rock, pebble, rock, pebble.]
Yeah, and that's still an AB pattern, isn't it?
Because I've got 2 things and I can move this down to check.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the rocks and pebbles into 2 vertical rows.]
Got my rocks.
Some of them are big and some of them are small. There are 2 things that make up the repeating core.
[Screen shows Michelle moving the rocks back into a horizontal row.]
Yes, you're right, I could.
We could also have said by colour because it goes grey, white, grey, white, grey, white, grey, white and if I move these down, I can see that also.
[Screen shows, Michelle, pointing to one grey rock, then a white pebble and then a grey one, and a white one.]
So grey and white.
[Screen shows Michelle putting them into 2 vertical rows, one with grey rocks and one with white pebbles.]
Yeah, but we decided to go with size.
[Screen shows Michelle putting the rocks and pebbles back into a horizontal row.]
Did you have any that you had found with size?
Ah, that's an interesting idea.
Could have done something with sticks, with long sticks and short sticks, long sticks, short sticks, long sticks, short sticks.
[Screen shows, Michelle moving her hands in and out, indicating short and long lengths.]
So, we know that we could make an AB pattern by looking at shape and we also made an AB pattern by looking at size.
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to the top row of shapes then the bottom row of rocks and pebbles. On the left of the second row she places a sticky note down which says the word ‘size’.]
Oh, I know we had another idea too. Cause, we're going through our craft cupboard, and we found all these old lids that we like to sometimes make things with.
[Screen shows 6 lids of varying sizes and colours.]
And we still have these little furry pompoms that we used too.
[Screen shows Michelle placing down 10 purple pom-poms.]
And we thought about something using both of these together.
Like we could use this lid and say on top.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a lid down and putting a pom-pom on top, she then places the second lid down and places a pom-pom underneath the lid.]
And use this lid and say under.
Oh, did you like that one? So, on top and under.
[Screen shows Michelle placing another lid down and putting a pom-pom on top. She places another lid down and places a pom-pom underneath.]
And you're right, in this case, it doesn't matter that the colour of my lids is changing because my patterns not worrying about the colour, it's worrying about the position of the pom-pom, to the lid.
Doesn't matter that the lids are different sizes or different colours.
It just matters that in this case, the pom-pom is on top in here it's underneath on top, underneath, on top, underneath.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a lid down and putting a pompom on top. She places another lid down and places a pom-pom underneath.]
That's right, and in this case, I can't even really see it. But when I lift it up, I can check our pattern.
So, on top, underneath, on top, underneath, on top, underneath.
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to the pom poms on top of the lids she then lifts the lids to show the pom-poms which are underneath.]
I could also say, up, down, up, down, up, down, but so in this case my pattern is describing what's changing is the position of the pom-pom. Sometimes it's on the top and sometimes it's down the bottom.
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to pom-poms on the top and then underneath.]
On the top, down the bottom, on the top, down the bottom, on the top, down the bottom or on top and beneath.
Or inside, on, in, on, in, on, in.
[Screen shows Michelle pointing to the pom-poms showing one outside on top of the lid and another one inside, underneath the lid.]
That's right, so sometimes we can make AB patterns still an AB pattern, by thinking about the position.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a sticky note down next to the third row with the word ‘position’ on it.]
So, I could do another one with position by saying something like, Oh yeah.
I've got these LEGO minifigs that we collected. We thought we could make some patterns out of so another position one would be. standing up, laying down, standing up.
What would come next? Laying down.
[Screen shows, Michelle placing down LEGO minifigs. She then places them in a row with one standing up and one laying down.]
Standing up. What would come next? Laying down, that's right, so we can make patterns using lots of different things actually.
And this one also is about position. I wonder, I know.
[Screen shows, Michelle gathering up the LEGO minifigs and placing them to the side.]
We also found some craft sticks.
You guys might not have these at home but, but we do.
That's what happens when you live with teachers and so some of them are unbundled and so this, that's right represents a one and what about these ones?
[Screen shows Michelle placing down some bundled and unbundled craft sticks.]
Yeah, that's right, usually when we see them in classrooms is because we've spent a lot of time bundling them up to make groups of yeah, tens.
And so, um I could check that they're tens.
[Screen shows Michelle picking up a bundle of craft sticks.]
What's a strategy that you have to check that this is, one 10?
Oh yeah, you're right, we could count all of them by ones. We could say 1, 2, 3 like this.
[Screen shows Michelle starting to count the craft sticks individually.]
Yeah, what's another strategy that we could use?
Yeah, you're right, we could subitise.
[Screen shows Michelle subitising the first 3 craft sticks.]
So, in our brains, we know that we can usually see 3 things without having to count, so there's 3.
Can you see that? Yeah, and then we could count on the rest if we like.
So, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. So that's a bundle of 10. And I could count all of these, or I could pick them up and because I know this is 10 if I stack them like this I can say, yep, they are the same width.
[Screen shows Michelle counting the craft sticks up to 10.]
And this one's the same width and this one's also the same width and this one is also the same width so I'm pretty confident that they're all bundles of 10.
[Screen shows Michelle comparing the 5 bundles of craft sticks width to indicate that they have the same amount in each bundle.]
And so, I wonder if we could use these to make a pattern somehow? What would you make?
Oh, I see. So, so some of you were saying you could do something like a 10, and then a one.
[Screen shows Michelle placing down a bundle of craft sticks and then one craft stick.]
Can you repeat what you think, or can you continue what you think would happen now if this was an AB pattern?
Ah, I like your thinking 10 and then a one, 10 and then one, 10 and then a one.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a bundle of craft sticks, then one, another bundle then one, and another bundle then one down in a row.]
So, in this case, what we've done to make our AB pattern is we changed the amount each time, how many or the quantity.
So, 10, one, 10, one, 10, one, 10 and one.
And so that means that we can sometimes make AB patterns by changing, the quantity or the idea of how many.
[Screen shows Michelle placing a sticky note down next to the final row with the word ‘quantity (how many)’ on it.]
So little mathematicians now it's back over to you.
I wonder if you could find some things at your house to make help you make some patterns that are AB patterns where you're changing the shape, the size, the position, and the quantity.
[Screen reads, Your challenge!
Have a look at the AB patterns you made.
Can you make some more where you are changing things like:
· Shape
· Size
· Position
· Quantity (how many)
Over to you little guys.
[End of transcript]
Instructions
- Go back and look at the patterns you made in ‘Exploring patterns 2’.
Can you make some more AB patterns where you are changing things like the:
shape
size
position
quantity.
Draw your patterns in your workbook.