By the end of the Foundation Stage, children should have learned in mathematics to 'talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns'. To achieve this, nursery settings need to initiate a wide variety of practical activities that introduce children to pattern-making.
A pattern can consist of colours, shapes, objects or events that occur in a particular order. Repeated visual patterns are multiple representations of one or more images, for instance.
Patterns surround us. We can see them on animal skins, in the ripples on a pond, on fabrics, and on decorations in our homes. However, children are not likely to be conscious of patterns unless they learn to focus on them as they observe their environment. The activities within this project encourage young children to do this so that they can attempt to create their own patterns.
Practitioners can promote children's enthusiasm for recognising patterns in nature by encouraging them to observe the weather, features of their immediate environment and animal life.
Part 1 10 May Patterns in nature
Make leaf patterns
Make flower patterns
Investigate seasonal patterns
Explore the life cycle of animals
Part 2 17 May Patterns in animal life
Paint zebras
Make tiger masks
Make bumble bees
Make ladybirds
Part 3 24 May Patterns in the man-made world
Create your own wallpaper
Share My Mum and Dad Make Me Laugh by Nick Sharratt (Walker Books, Pounds 4.99)
Design a tie
Explore rotating patterns
Organise a pattern day
Part 4 31 May Patterns in action
Focus on daily routines
Explore pattern in music
Look at patterns in games
Explore patterns in rhymes
Activity 1
Patterns in leaves
To identify patterns in nature, children should become young scientists. They should investigate with the appropriate tools andthey should learn to share their observations with others. Theywill need to be supported by adults as they extend their knowledge and their communication skills. Make available a wide variety of reference books for research and classification.
* Make a collection of leaves to explore different shapes and to compare the vein structure that carries water and nutrients to the leaf tissue.
* Use a magnifying glass to observe closely the detailed composition of the delicate arterial system.
* Ask the children to identify the pattern of the smaller veins that branch off the main artery. See how the pattern of the veins is repeated on both sides.
* Make leaf pattern prints. Take a piece of plasticine that has been rolled into a ball and flattened with a rolling pin. Carefully put a leaf, right side up, on top of it.
* Roll over it with the rolling pin, pressing the veined underside into the smooth surface. Then remove the leaf carefully to reveal its imprint.
* Prepare paint and pour it into a tray fitted with a flat piece of sponge.
* Pick up the plasticine and place it face down on the paint-soaked sponge.
* Pick the plasticine up gently and use it to print on to paper.
* Using a magnifying glass, the pattern should be clearly visible on the paper.
* Using this leaf printer, the children can create and repeat their own patterns.
Activity 2
Petal power
The circular spread of petals around the centre of a flower forms a pattern. Bring this to the children's attention and provide them with a selection of flowers to investigate and compare the patterns of the petals.
* Use daffodils, tulips, anemones and clematis, as all these flowers have arrangements that are repeated patterns of six, eight or ten petals.
* Count the petals and examine theway they splay out from the centre of the flower.
* Make a picture of the flowers, using various shades of green paper to represent the flower stems and crepe paper for the circular centres.
* Provide tissue paper cut into different petal shapes, similar in colour and form to the petals of the flowers you have examined.
* Use cellulose to glue the flowers to contrasting coloured paper.
* Encourage the children to create their own flowers by observing the ones before them. They should count the petals and try to match the colour of the real flower as closely as possible.
* Talk them through the activity in order to emphasise the special vocabulary.
Activity 3
Seasonal variations
Through the investigation of leaves and flowers, encourage the children to discuss the cycle of the seasons and its effect on their environment. Young children have lived for so few years that their awareness of the changing seasons may be limited. They have no accurate perception of a year's length or its stages. For this reason, it is very important to examine some tangible aspects of each season and to explain how the overall pattern of the year is arranged. Plan activities that help the children notice weather conditions and their effect on the growth of plants.
* Plant and look after seeds and bulbs either indoors or outside. The children should water them regularly and comment on the progress of growth.
* Observe daily weather conditions.
* Create your own weather chart to record the temperature, rainfall, wind and hours of sunlight.
* Let the children sort clothes according to their suitability for different weather conditions and mount displays of them.
* Collect postcards and photos featuring different countries at different times of the year, and locate them with the children using a world atlas. Encourage the children to learn that countries experience changing seasons and that this is a pattern that repeats itself year after year.
Activity 4
The life cycles of animals
Once the children have begun to understand the different seasons of the year and have seen their effect on plant growth, they can learn about the life cycles of animals that depend on these seasonal changes.
* Explore the life cycle of the caterpillar. Use fiction and non-fiction books to support the work and extend the children's learning. The development from the egg to the caterpillar, to the cocoon and then to the butterfly is fascinating for children to follow. It appears remarkable that a creature could make such strange transformations, particularly as the caterpillar and the butterfly are so different in their shape, texture and movement.
* Children love to fantasise and convince others that they have changed into an animal, a car or a robot. It seems incredible for them that a humble caterpillar can transform itself into a spectacular butterfly - like a fairy tale come true.
* Emphasise that the pattern repeats itself because butterflies lay eggs on a leaf to start the cycle off again.
* Explain, in a similar way, the life cycle of the frog. If possible, borrow some frogs' spawn from a local pond where the froglets can be returned as soon as they have lost their tails. Prepare activities and resources that will encourage the children to describe the sequence of frogs' development and to identify the separate stages.
Little by little, the children will internalise these learning experiences and they will become more confident about discovering patterns and repeated cycles all around them - in their family structures, in their bodies and in the external world.