Teachers often illustrate how patterns work by using shapes. This is accomplished by writing shape patterns on the chalkboard or by having the children draw patterns on paper. Teachers draw circle -- square -- circle -- square and ask the children what shape comes next. Other ways to illustrate patterns are by using food items, such as crackers and pretzels. For example, children make patterns such as: cracker -- pretzel -- cracker -- pretzel.
To illustrate how patterns work, teachers often use letters. For example, a simple letter pattern is: A B A B. To increase in difficulty, the teacher may write: A A B A A B. The students try to determine what letters come next in the pattern.
Sequencing primarily refers to placing numbers in a pattern of some kind. An easy pattern is writing numbers in an even sequence: 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. Students must determine the missing numbers in a sequence as part of learning about patterns and sequencing. For young children, an example might be: 1, 3, 5, ?. They must determine what the next number is. As children get older, the sequencing gets harder, such as: 1, 3, 6, 10, ?. The sequence is found by increasing the number added to the previous number. It starts off by adding 2, then 3 and then 4. The last number is 15 and is calculated by adding 5 to the 10.
As children learn about patterns and sequencing, the lessons become more difficult. For example, students may be asked to solve a pattern like this: 1, 6, 5, 10, 9, ?. The students will find that in this example, they must add 5 and then subtract 1. Children can learn patterns by doing in-class activities or worksheets. Another way for students to learn about patterns and sequences is to have them create their own number sequence patterns and let other students try to solve them.