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Are you looking for some hands-on activities to help your students practice patterns? This is the post for you! I’m sharing a variety of engaging pattern activities for kindergarten that you can use to enhance your math instruction with hands-on practice.
This wide variety of activities will help you introduce and practice patterns with your whole class. You’ll also find some engaging activities that you can use for math centers or small group practice.
There are many fun ways that you can incorporate anchor charts and pocket charts into your pattern practice! Your students will love to help build a pattern anchor chart as you introduce each new pattern type. You can hand out the different shape cards and students can watch for the right time to place their card in the pattern.
In addition to anchor charts, students love pocket chart activities! For example, students can learn about how patterns can be represented by letters with a pocket chart activity. As you add different shape cards to the chart, students can add the corresponding letter underneath each card. This helps students see and understand the difference between the pattern labels.
You can also help your students practice completing patterns with a pocket chart activity! Simply place shape cards in the pocket chart and have students decide what cards would complete the pattern. Students love to solve the mystery of the hidden shapes!
Students always enjoy being able to create their own mini books on any topic, but patterns are especially fun!
These printable pattern books help students practice a variety of different pattern types. Students can practice coloring and labeling the pattern type.
They can also practice continuing patterns by drawing the missing shapes. Finally, students can cut and paste small shape cards to create a pattern.
Once students have had a chance to practice individual pattern types, they can put together their own large pattern book. In this printable activity, students will focus on one pattern type at a time.
They will color and identify the pattern, then write the colors that they used for each pattern. This is a fun way to practice spelling color words!
Another printable book to help students summarize the different patterns that they have learned is an “All About Patterns” mini book.
To complete this book, students will cut and paste a variety of small shape cards to create different combinations of patterns.
This cute pattern snake gives students a chance to get creative with patterns.
Students will choose a variety of colored squares to create this snake craft. They can arrange and glue the squares in a pattern of their choice or you can provide them with a pattern type. These colorful snakes always look great on a bulletin board!
This fun partner game is a great way to help students practice completing patterns! One student will create a pattern of their choice by placing small manipulatives on a pattern strip. Then they will use small paper cups to cover the final three objects in the pattern.
Their partner (who has been covering their eyes) will then guess what is underneath each cup based on their knowledge of patterns. This is a fun way to help students identify and complete patterns!
This is a great activity for math centers or morning work time! Some of your students might even enjoy pairing up to play this game as a fast finisher option. Since it’s an open-ended activity, students can play again and again until it’s time to move on to the next part of your daily routine!
Once students have had plenty of practice with patterns, they can use their knowledge to create their own pattern bracelets! Students can use pony beads and pipe cleaners to create a bracelet using the pattern of their choice. The pipe cleaners add a good amount of structure to make it easier for little hands to string the beads.
Students are always so excited to compare the patterns that they chose for their bracelets! When it’s time to go home for the day, your students will be eager to explain patterns to their families!
Last, but not least, is a pattern activity that will get students moving: Pattern musical chairs! Each student starts at their seat and creates a pattern of their choice on a pattern strip. They leave the last three spaces on their pattern strip empty.
Once everyone is ready, play some music and have students to walk around the room for about 10 to 15 seconds. When the music stops, students will sit at the seat closest to them, even if it’s not their seat. They will look at the pattern created at that seat and then finish the pattern.
When everyone has completed the pattern in front of them, they will clear the pattern strips and create a brand new pattern. Just like the first round, they will leave the last three spaces empty. Then it’s time to start the music and play again!
All of the pattern activities mentioned above can be found in one easy-to-download resource! You’ll find all of the printable materials and instructions that you need to incorporate these hands-on pattern activities into your math practice. These activities are a great way to supplement your math instruction or provide support for students who could use additional practice with patterns.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this resource, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on TPT.
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it whenever you need some fun pattern activities for kindergarten! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these activities when you’re looking for a fun way to practice patterns in your classroom.
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
