They work in pairs to find how many people there are if there are 20 eyes. Students use skip counting or calculators to find multiples of numbers and then color them on the hundreds chart. Linking cubes or Unifix cubes can be used to build towers or trains with every other cube or every third cube a certain color to illustrate, recognize, and practice skip counting patterns. Students write their first name repeatedly on a 10x10 grid, and then color the first letter of their name to create a pattern. They discuss the patterns formed.
Students identify the same pattern in a variety of contexts.
For example, blackwhite-blackwhite is like sitstandsitstand and ABAB and updownupdown and straightcurvestraightcurve. Students identify patterns on a calendar using pictures or numerals. For example, in November, even dates might be marked with a snowflake, and odd dates with a picture of a turkey. Or, they might mark each date with the day of the week. Students create a pattern using various rubber stamp blocks or picture designs.