C1.1 Identify and describe a variety of patterns involving geometric designs, including patterns found in real-life contexts.
Activity 1: Discovering Patterns! (Recognize)
Ask students to identify patterns in and around the school. To do this, suggest that they look closely at the walls, floors, windows, landscaping, etc.
Help them to discover patterns by asking questions such as:
- Look at the walls (windows, bricks, etc.) of the school. What patterns do you see?
- Is there a consistent order (or core) in the way the windows are arranged (bricks, tiles covering the floors, trees, etc.)?
- Can you describe a rule? (Examples of a rule: on this outside wall, there is always a wall section followed by two windows, there are always two bricks followed by a brick with an orange line.)
Next, ask them to represent, using concrete materials or a drawing, an observed pattern rule. The students must then create a pattern to show that there is indeed a consistent pattern rule.
Source : Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques de la maternelle à la 3e année, p. 46.
Activity 2: The Pattern Musem (Describe)
Create a "pattern museum" on a bulletin board with pictures or drawings of patterns discovered at home. Ask students relevant thought-provoking questions, such as:
- How would you describe the "museum" to someone who comes to visit our classroom?
- Do all these examples have patterns? How do you know?
- If you had to group some of these images together, which ones would you put together and why?
This questioning prompts students to discuss the kinds of patterns in the "museum" and the characteristics of a pattern.
Source : Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques de la maternelle à la 3e année, p. 47.
Activity 3: From Which Country? (Describe)
Fabrics have always been a way to express the cultural heritage of a people. That is why the colours and patterns of fabrics often give a clue as to the nationality of the people.
Show students a piece of fabric. Ask them to describe the patterns in the fabric, focusing on patterns and colours, explain how the same pattern can look very different if one of the attributes is colour, and compare the patterns in the fabric with the patterns on their own clothes.
Exploring fabrics allows students to discover different cultural expressions and understand how the mathematics they learn in school relates to the world around them.
Source : Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques de la maternelle à la 3e année, p. 47.
Activity 4: Corresponding Non-Number Patterns
Summary
This activity is an introduction to the concept of pattern structure. Students will associate a letter with each position or sound in the pattern created to represent the structure of the pattern.
Materials
- table
Action
Tell students that they will be involved in the creation of a pattern and that observation will be required to discover the attributes used to create it.
Choose positions and sounds to form a pattern that includes two different attributes (for example, standing and slapping hips; sitting and snapping fingers).
Invite a person to come to the front of the class and whisper to them to stand and tap their hips.
Invite two more people to come up and say they will be extending the pattern. Whisper to them, in turn, to sit on the floor and snap their fingers.
Invite another person to come to the front of the class and whisper to them to stand and pat their hips.
Continue until there are three repetitions of the pattern.
Ask students to observe the pattern rule being formed, raise their hands after identifying it, and then come to extend the pattern, one person at a time, and justify their choice. Give all students a chance to extend the pattern.
Review the pattern rule by asking students the following questions:
- What repeats itself in the pattern we have just formed?
- What are the attributes used to create the pattern?
- What other attributes could be used?
Then explain to students that every time someone is standing and slapping their hips, that element of the pattern corresponds to the letter A and every time someone is sitting and snapping their fingers, that element of the pattern corresponds to the letter B.
Ask students to explain how to write the structure of the pattern using the letters A and B. Write the answer on the board (ABB ABB ABB…) and review the correspondence of standing and slapping their hips and sitting and snapping their fingers using the letters A and B. Explain to students that the letters are used to represent the structure of the pattern.
Continue the activity using other structures to create new patterns of positions or movements and sounds.
Source : Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques de la maternelle à la 3e année, p. 128-129.