When I searched for ideas to explore patterns with preschoolers I found many activities using objects in AB pattern and asking questions such as "what comes next?"
I feel such activities lack the big picture. I like these cute activities and they are useful for reinforcing the concept of patterns but not to introduce patterns. what would children think while doing them? My guess is that they are thinking "why do I have to use only these objects? Why do I have to even line them up? Why do I have to follow this particular pattern?" Do these cute activities have an answer for these queries?
These activities miss the big picture! The exploration should answer questions that will make sense to their little minds.
How can we introduce patterns? Through the world around us. Point out when you encounter patterns in real life. Here are few examples
Up/down motion of swings or teeter totter
Opening and closing a faucet/ door
Tick tock of clock...
This thought process got me the idea of utilizing Sid and Shrini's excitement about Halloween celebration. Everyday this week they have woken up with anticipation of it being Halloween.
So I set up a simple provocation.
First, the kids sorted the day and night pictures. I asked some questions to assess their prior knowledge such as Why do you think this is day/ night? Why are nights dark? What difference do you notice in the sky?
Soon I figured out that they were confusing time of day with day of week. So I simplified the questions.
What comes after day?
What comes after night?
Quickly they figured that day and night alternate forming an AB pattern.
Now they look out for patterns almost everywhere. This evening Shrini coughed in rhythmic hi/lo fashion and exclaimed "See mom! My cough was like ABAB!" :)
Here is a short video of Shrini working with the picture cards.
I feel such activities lack the big picture. I like these cute activities and they are useful for reinforcing the concept of patterns but not to introduce patterns. what would children think while doing them? My guess is that they are thinking "why do I have to use only these objects? Why do I have to even line them up? Why do I have to follow this particular pattern?" Do these cute activities have an answer for these queries?
These activities miss the big picture! The exploration should answer questions that will make sense to their little minds.
How can we introduce patterns? Through the world around us. Point out when you encounter patterns in real life. Here are few examples
Up/down motion of swings or teeter totter
Opening and closing a faucet/ door
Tick tock of clock...
This thought process got me the idea of utilizing Sid and Shrini's excitement about Halloween celebration. Everyday this week they have woken up with anticipation of it being Halloween.
So I set up a simple provocation.
Simple Provocation - Day and Night picture cards
I laid out a few photo cards of day and night images. The idea was to let them predict Halloween day. I setup the provocation on Thursday.
First, the kids sorted the day and night pictures. I asked some questions to assess their prior knowledge such as Why do you think this is day/ night? Why are nights dark? What difference do you notice in the sky?
Soon I figured out that they were confusing time of day with day of week. So I simplified the questions.
What comes after day?
What comes after night?
Quickly they figured that day and night alternate forming an AB pattern.
Now they look out for patterns almost everywhere. This evening Shrini coughed in rhythmic hi/lo fashion and exclaimed "See mom! My cough was like ABAB!" :)
Here is a short video of Shrini working with the picture cards.
Can you share your ideas for real life pattern exploration?
No comments :
Post a Comment