Student Actions

Teacher Actions

• Students will develop deep and flexible conceptual understanding as they describe and name patterns, including patterns with objects, pictures, and numbers. For example: Describe rules that can be used to extend the pattern 2, 4, 6, 8, , , and complete the pattern 33, 43, , 63, , 83 or 20, , , 17.

• Develop the ability to make pattern models and generalize how to extend the pattern. Students will work in small and large groups to make conjectures as they create and describe patterns that grow and shrink. Students should also communicate mathematically using appropriate vocabulary such as, pattern, shrink, grow, more, less, bigger, smaller, forward, backward, add, subtract, and sequence.

• Develop accurate and appropriate procedural fluency as students represent patterns using concrete materials, pictures, symbols, charts,  number lines, and hundreds charts.

• Communicate mathematical ideas about patterning to one another through examples, demonstrations, models, drawing, and making logical arguments using appropriate vocabulary.

• Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving where students explore a variety of patterns, repeating and growing, using a variety of manipulatives, pictures, etc. Examples may include function machines, guess my rule, unifix cube color patterns, etc. in patterns that grow and shrink. Teachers should model vocabulary as students describe their patterns, the teacher will help students organize, record, represent, and communicate their thinking.

• Support productive struggle in learning mathematics by representing and extending counting patterns on a number line or hundreds chart. Describe and name repeating patterns on a hundreds chart, both verbally and with pictures.  

• Posing purposeful questions to help students use prior knowledge and reasoning in order to complete shrinking and growing patterns. What patterns do you see?  What would you see next?  What rule does this pattern follow?  Could you create a similar/different pattern?  Describe your pattern. Could you name this pattern with letters or objects?  

• Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding by patterning, it is important to not limit patterning to simple visual representations but also to include more complex patterns in numbers as well, such as addition patterns, skip counting patterns, math function machines patterns, etc… Students should be able to identify possible rules to extend or complete growing and shrinking patterns.

Key Understandings

Misconceptions

• Identify and label repeating patterns as AB (red, blue, red, blue), ABB (red, blue, blue, red, blue, blue),  ABC ( red, blue, green, red, blue, green) etc.  They are able to name the pattern elements and recognize the core (The shortest string of elements that repeat over and over in the pattern). They recognize the same repeating pattern when it is represented using different elements (objects, sounds, movements).

• Expand their work with patterns to include patterns of change. Patterns of change include growing patterns (•, ••, •••, ••••, ... ) and shrinking patterns (••••••, •••••, ••••, ...).  First graders are able to describe the change ("getting bigger by one" or "getting smaller by one") and can extend the pattern of change.  First graders can identify a possible "rule" used to complete and extend a pattern.

• Patterns must repeat.

• Patterns can’t be made using number sequences.

• Repeating pattern can only involve two elements.