Challenge students to read their partner's pattern in more than one way. Challenge students to try to make a pattern that could be described in more than one way. One partner begins a pattern by placing shells on the workmat. The other partner continues the pattern. Students describe the pattern to each other and the reasoning behind the choices made for continuing it.
Students remove the shells, trade places, and repeat the activity several times.
Students record their patterns with shapes, letters, or other symbols and compare them to patterns made by other groups. Students compare the patterns found in two different pictures. Students work in pairs. A partner, or the rest of the class in a whole-group activity, will replicate the pattern of movements. Students will then use action words to describe the pattern as they act it out.