In first grade, students continue to gain expertise in recognizing complex patterns and creating their own patterns. By second grade, students can identify increasingly complex patterns in many settings and can represent and manipulate those patterns in a variety of ways. The language and illustrations in picture books abound with patterns. There are so many books available today with strong or obvious patterns that listing them could fill another book. However, we've listed some of the best in this chapter.
Some books have a subtle pattern.
The pattern of threes, for instance, is prevalent in many folktales and in many other books with a folktale quality. There are three pigs, three bears, three billy goats. Often there are three tasks that must be accomplished. Encourage children to find these patterns. In books with an obvious language pattern, it is often useful to put the text on an overhead or on charts.