Pack your bags 🧳 and fasten your seatbelt 💺 because it may only be September but IT’S TIME FOR A VACATION! ✈️
🌎 Destination: a round-trip tour of 5 all-inclusive patterning centers! 👇Here’s how it works:
- Provide each student with a Pattern Passport (literally just print, collate, and staple!).
- Put a different center activity at each table group (5 in total…they’re all no- or very low-prep.. i.e. pretty much just gathering materials).
- Students are free to move around to any “destination” they want (although you may wish to limit how many “tourists” can visit each destination at one time to avoid overcrowding).
- When finished at a center, they will visit you at the “passport office” to have their corresponding passport page stamped (or stickered 😉) before traveling to their next destination.
Let’s take a peek at the activities featured at each “destination”…
Patterning Math Center #1:
The first destination option is “Island Time!“; a write-the-room style activity…but for patterning! Students walk around the room, locate one of the pattern strips stuck on the walls/cabinets/etc., then use the loose page provided to cut out the image that extends the found pattern, then glue it on the corresponding passport page.
Patterning Math Center #2:
Remember cootie catchers?! They may be retro but they’re still just as cool 😎 At this destination students get to use the template provided to create their own “pattern catcher” featuring 4 or 8 different patterns that they will create themselves. Then, complete the corresponding passport page to earn your second stamp!
Patterning Math Center #3:
This is one of my personal favourite stops along the trip. By this point in the journey, your students can shout “I’M A PATTERN PRO!” from the mountaintops 🏔️ There are so many options…limited only by what you have available for students to create patterns with; Pictured above, I set out bingo dabbers, stickers, and stamps, but you could also use sticky gemstones, coloured paper scraps, or just stick with markers! Complete the corresponding passport page then set sail to the next destination ⛵
Patterning Math Center #4:
If you know me, you know I love my craftivities. So up next we have a pattern turtle craft that doubles as a super easy math bulletin board display! Add patterns to its shell using shapes and/or colours, then complete the corresponding passport page before heading to your final destination 🚂
Center #5:
Ending BIG with some FINE motor patterning! At the “pattern bracelet” table island, students get to create their own bracelet to wear and take home. I find basic pony beads and a pipe cleaner to be the simplest way for little fingers to manage their patterns without beads constantly slipping off on to the floor, but feel free to use string or whatever you have available to you! Once your pattern is recorded in your passport, grab that final stamp and head home 🏠
And that about wraps up the trip! This is such a fun, extended alternative to hosting a Pattern Party (Part 2 here) at the end of your unit… Interactive and hands-on? ✅ Building a strong foundation for critical and algebraic thinking? ✅ Plus, who doesn’t want to go on a patterning vacation?! SO. MUCH. FUN.
Ready to take your students on a memorable patterning adventure?! LET’S GO!
📌 PIN to save and remember for later!👆
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