Does this pattern BUG you?! Insect Pattern Parades!

Hi All!

Spring is coming. It's warming up and I am spotting bugs and lizards out and about. You can capitalize on kids' interest in insects by doing this pattern activity.

Helping kids look for, notice, and describe patterns is a really important foundational skill in math, particularly to help build a foundation for algebraic thinking. I like to begin by having students build physical patterns with different color and shape pattern blocks. Colored unifix or multilink cubes are great as well. Once students have had experience building physical patterns then you can move to doing some pictorial patterns. The activity below is good for this stage as it allows for a lot of differentiation and it gives them a chance to color, which kids love (and adults too judging from the sales of those adult coloring books!)

1. Give each student a copy of the Insect Parade, crayons or colored pencils, scissors, glue, and a sheet of white copy paper or colored construction paper. Here's a link to this paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12qVBHTn8XEP08DUSYfOSeV90Oj4dZbfQ/view?usp=sharing

2. Have them choose a distinct color for each insect on the page and color all of the pictures of that insect that color. For example, there are 5 grasshoppers pictured. Students should color all 5 green. All 5 ladybugs should be red. And so on.

3. Once these insects are colored in, have students cut them out on the dotted lines.

4. Now explain to students that they should arrange 6- 8 insects in a line and "put them on parade" - A Pattern Parade. The insect parade should form a pattern. The student should be able to describe the pattern and why it is a pattern. Here's an example:

5. Once they have created a satisfactory pattern have them glue the insects down and compare pattern parades with another student. They should try to guess each other's patterns.

6. Patterns can be increasingly complex as students are able. This can best be done by doing some intricate coloring on the various parts of the insects as seen below. It can also be done by positioning (such as insects facing forward or backward.)

7. These make a great bulletin board display when completed.

Best,

Bob

PS - This is a variation on a lesson I wrote some time ago in Meeting the Math Standards with Favorite Picture Books (Scholastic, 2002).

Comments

BAD Graphs

Hi All, Kids love to find other people's mistakes. (Not always that keen on finding their own of course.) Here's a chance for them to find some mistakes while learning some things about graphs. This activity focuses on learning about graphs and the parts of a graph that are important, but are sometimes neglected. When kids make their own graphs the most common omissions are: the title (what is this a graph of?), labeling the x and y axis (what do numbers and bars means?), and the units (how much of what?). A great way to remind kids of the importance of these elements is to have them try to deal with graphs that don't have them ie; BAD graphs. I give students a worksheet on which I have created four BAD graphs. They are BAD graphs because I leave off important elements like the title. Along with this students are also given a 4 item question sheet which they are to try to answer using the BAD graphs. I put the BAD graphs on the board or display. They look like this: I...

EGG BOX SHAKE! IT'S WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO BE.

Hi All, Shake it up! Egg Box Shake is noisy and fun! That's a big plus right there for most kids. Students like to create and keep their own math tools, and this is a great opportunity to do that as well. And, teachers can adapt the game to fit any level or mathematical operation. Win. Win. Win. Egg Box Shake originated as a coin identification and addition game for grades 1 – 3. I had students bring in an egg carton from home and then provided them with play money or coin stamps, ink pads, and card stock. They stamped out pictures of the coins onto card stock, front and back images, and then cut out the pictures. Students glued these pictures into the bottom of the twelve sections of the egg carton. Each player would get two beads, beans, chips, marbles, or any other small manipulative. They put these into the box and closed it. They then shook the box. When they stopped they opened it and saw where the beads had landed. Players added those two coins o...

THE FOUR FOURS!

Hi All, Here's a mathematical exploration that will literally make kids want to know what a factorial is and how to use it! I know, crazy, right? But, true! I love this one. It is particularly good for a class that is learning about order of operations, so typically 5th or 6th grade, but you can use it all the way through high school because it is just so darn intriguing and fun. You should try it too. It does give your brain a workout, and makes you think flexibly with numbers. The premise is simple. You get four "4's." Using any of six operations; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square root, or factorials, write mathematical expressions to represent all the integers from 0 - 25. You may use operations as many times as you want and you may use a variety of operations within an expression. You can also use brackets and parentheses as needed. For example to represent 16, you could write 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 Remember, 4 is the only digit you can use...

MathStuff

Search This Blog