Friday, May 21, 2010

Pattern - an early maths skill

I'd introduced patterns to him many months ago, if not a year ago. But I've not been regular or consistent in teaching it. He can now continue these various patterns when I present it to him in a "what comes next" manner:

A, B, A, B...
A, A, B, B, A, A, B, B....
A, A, B, A, A, B...
A, B, C, A, B, C.... (only if I make it obvious like grouping the A,B,C closely then give a big space before repeating the group A,B,C)

He likes to watch "Team Umizoomi" on Nick Jr, which teaches numeracy. It's very well thought out and presented and so cute too. These are some of the things they've covered:

Patterns through images, (kangaroo, basketball, frog, kangaroo, basketball, frog...)
Patterns through colours (the coloured lily pads)
Patterns through sounds (chirp chirp tweet tweet, chirp chirp tweet tweet...)
Patterns through numbers (1, 2, 1, 2....)
Sequence
Skip counting (2,4,6,8 let's do the crazy shake. 10,20,30,40...)
Addition (how many more stamps do we need?)
Shapes (simple matching, using shapes to make something new like a submarine)
Matching (shapes, numbers)

I find it very creative and has helped him, which makes my work easier.

Today, I brought out the wooden ladybugs with the intention to teach him grouping. But, he was excited when he saw them and he quickly took them out of the box. I let him play with it instead of taking them back from him to start my planned activity.

I was pleasantly rewarded for that...cos he surprised me by making his own pattern! That was the first time ever that he made ANY pattern of his own will! No instruction or prompting given. He was very patient and careful in arranging them, which is truly unusual as he gets frustrated easily with his fine motor impairment.




Thanks to his music teacher for the ladybugs!

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