Teaching patterns

28 July 2011

Buchi was very eager to do several pages of his kindergarten activity book. It is quite amusing to see him as a very competitive little guy. He treats learning as if it’s a game — wanting to go to the next level all the time. This is okay but sometimes he’s hard on himself. We always remind him to take it easy and that mistakes make us a better person.

The lesson today involved some of his favorites: colors and shapes. It wasn’t really difficult to teach him patterns because some of the games in Sesame Street and Nick Jr. are all about identifying which comes next. We played “follow the leader” game. I kept things pretty simple: clap, jump, sit and stand. Buchi and I switched roles and he came up with outrageously silly actions. We ended up dancing.

Using markers and crayons, I introduced the lesson on patterns. He could quickly identify which item would come next so I decided to let him create patterns on his own using whatever items were available (blocks, toys, pencils). We drew circles, triangles, squares and rectangles.

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