Use a marker to write a basic alphabetic representation of a three-shaped pattern on a piece of paper; ABCABC.
Ask students if they can identify the pattern. Ask them to repeat the pattern, saying aloud the next series of letters; ABC.
Provide students with three different types of foam shapes; triangles, circles and squares, for example. Inform them that they are going to use the shapes to create the alphabetic pattern.
Instruct students to assign a shape to a letter in the alphabetic pattern. For example, triangle for A, circle for B and square for C.
Encourage children to use the three different shapes to create the alphabetic pattern. In this case, the shape pattern should be triangle, circle, square, triangle, circle, square and so on.
Try more complex variations of three-shaped patterns using the same approach. Create an alphabetic representation of a more difficult three-shaped pattern; AABBCCAABBCC, for example. Instruct children to recreate the patterns with their shapes.
Write a simple numeric representation of a three-shaped pattern on the board. Start with 123123, for example.
Discuss patterns with your students and show them the numeric pattern you have created. Ask students to use numbers to repeat the pattern.
Distribute various colored small candies like jelly beans, M&Ms or Smarties to the students. Instruct them to assign a specific colored candy to each number in the patter; for example, green for 1, blue for 2 and red for 3.
Instruct students to use their candies to recreate the simple numeric pattern you have provided. In the given example, the pattern would be green, blue, red, green, blue, red and so on.
Encourage students to use their candies to create more complicated patterns; for instance, green, blue, blue, red, green, blue, blue, red. Have students share their patterns and encourage classmates to create a numeric representation of one another's patterns. In the given example, the numeric pattern would be 1,2,2,3,1,2,2,3.