• About
  • Projects
  • Contact
  • Join
  • Login
Erikson Institute Early Math Collaborative
Early Math Collaborative
  • Why Early Math?
    Our Mission Big Ideas of Early Math Precursor Concepts Racial Justice
  • Professional Development
    Whole Teacher Approach Learning Labs Instructional Coaching Leadership Academies Our Books
  • Online Learning
    Our Resources Professional Learning Modules Series Bulletin Board Online Degrees
  • Research
    Teacher Development Publications Presentations Measuring Math
  • Events
    Events Calendar Summer Institutes Promising Math
  • Ideas
  • Why Early Math?
    • Our Mission
    • Big Ideas of Early Math
    • Precursor Concepts
    • Racial Justice
  • Professional Development
    • Learning Labs
    • Instructional Coaching
    • Leadership Academies
    • Our Books
  • Online Learning
    • Online Learning
    • Professional Learning Modules
    • Series
    • Bulletin Board
    • Online Degrees
  • Research
    • Teacher Change
    • Publications
    • Presentations
    • Measuring Math
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Summer Institutes
    • Promising Math
  • About
    • About
    • Projects and Partnerships
    • Staff
    • Contact
  • Language Switcher
    • English
    • Español de México
  • Ideas
  • MyDashboard
  • Login or Join Today

Math Strands

Types

for

Audience

Special Topics

Pattern

Pattern is less a topic of mathematics than a defining quality of mathematics itself. Mathematics “makes sense” because its patterns allow us to generalize our understanding from one situation to another. Children who expect mathematics to “make sense” look for patterns. Children need many opportunities to discover and talk about patterns in mathematics. These experiences help them form the attitude and confidence that mathematics should make sense, the crucial foundation all children need to become persistent and flexible problem solvers.

Copyright: Erikson Institute’s Early Math Collaborative. Reprinted from Big Ideas of Early Mathematics: What Teachers of Young Children Need to Know (2014), Pearson Education.

eric carle books
Series: Book Ideas

Beloved Eric Carle Books Illustrate the Math in Story Time

August 18, 2021

For over 50 years, millions of children have returned again and again to the books illustrated and written by Eric Carle. Kids can’t get enough of his colorful collages, animal characters, and rhythmic texts.

  • Topic: Pattern, Number Sense, Counting
  • Tags Eric Carle, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, 1-2-3 to the Zoo: A Counting Book, Rooster's Off to See the World
kitchen math, mathematical structures
Series: Ideas at Work January 26, 2021

3 Ways to See Mathematical Structure in Everyday Kitchen Math

Cooking with kids is a natural way to do math together. But we're not talking about turning meal preparation into a formal math lesson. Cooking together presents an opportunity that is more about noticing and…

  • Topic: Pattern, Measurement
  • Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
  • Tags Family Math
how to teach patterns to preschoolers, growing patterns, pattern books for kindergarten
Series: Book Ideas August 28, 2019

5 Books and Songs for Exploring Growing Patterns

Cumulative tales and rhymes illustrate growing patterns, typically an increase or decrease by one on each page. As the growing pattern is revealed through the story, children get excited because they can figure out "what…

  • Topic: Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
  • Tags Lily Toy Hong, Jacqueline Woodson, Graeme Base, Animals, Demi, Culture, We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, The Waterhole, Two of Everything, One Grain of Rice
math patterns, pattern books for kindergarten
Series: Book Ideas January 11, 2019

4 Fun Books that Explore Math, Patterns, and Sequences

From an early age, children notice and appreciate patterns in the world around them. Patterns and sequences of different kinds begin to pop up all over the place, especially in the books that children love.

  • Topic: Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
  • Tags I Went Walking, The Napping House, Sue Williams, Eric Carle, Bill Martin Jr., Trudy Harris, Animals, Audrey Wood, Pattern Bugs, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?
Size and Pattern With Balls and Tubes
Series: Focus on Play February 28, 2017

Size and Pattern with Balls and Tubes

This simple interaction between caregiver and toddler is a demonstration of very early mathematical concepts, or "precursor concepts."

  • Topic: Precursor Concepts, Pattern, Measurement
  • Age/Grade Level: Infants, Toddlers
  • Tags Toddlers
Series: Focus on the Child October 11, 2016

Repeating Patterns with Child 14

A child is pushed to decipher the repeating pattern in an array of blocks. Then he attempts to continue the pattern.

  • Topic: Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
Series: Focus on the Child March 15, 2016

Second Grade Problem Solving with Child 5

This second grader demonstrates an interesting choice for a mathematical model by graphing.

  • Topic: Pattern, Number Operations
  • Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
  • Tags Problem Solving, Child 5, Correction
Series: Hear from the Experts September 16, 2015

Talking with Children Sets the Groundwork for Mathematical Learning

A new book, Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain, explains the importance of regularly talking with children ages 0-3—the time during which the brain develops most rapidly. Ensuring that these conversations take place will…

  • Topic: Sets, Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Infants, Toddlers
Series: About the Collaborative May 27, 2015

Collaboration with the Ounce Highlights Math Development in Children Ages 0-3

Reading a "touch-and-feel" book or singing an action song with a baby or toddler is setting the groundwork for mathematical thinking and future school success. That's the point of Math All Around Me (MAAM), a joint…

  • Topic: Sets, Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Infants, Toddlers, Pre-K, Kindergarten
  • Tags Babies, Infants
Series: Ideas at Work March 30, 2015

Intentional Teaching Comes to Life with Big Shoulders Project

A Chicago-area teacher's intentional teaching and efforts to differentiate for students of varying ability and confidence resulted in a rich math lesson. Based on Audrey Wood's classic book The Napping House, students created their own…

  • Topic: Pattern
  • Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
  • Tags Food, Books, Audrey Wood, The Napping House
  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • Next
  • Last ››

Do the math.

 

Free videos.

Free newsletter packed with ideas.

Free professional learning modules.

 


Join the collaborative

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Funders
  • Legal Policies

Early Math Collaborative 451 N LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60654

© Erikson Institute, All Rights Reserved.

  • Erikson Institute
  • The Early Math Collaborative is part of Erikson Institute, the nation’s premier graduate school in child development.

  • Visit Erikson.edu