Pattern Boards Years 2 - 6

Summary A Poly Plug Frame quickly sketched on the whiteboard is used to generate class discussion of number patterns. Someone chooses a starting number for the top left circle and someone else chooses the skip counting rule that will be used to fill in the remaining circles. When some of circles are filled, the teacher directs a discussion of patterns. Then each child makes their own pattern frame and covers it with a red board mask. The teacher organises children to move to a new table and try to discover another person's pattern in a 'personal challenge' game situation. Suitable for threading. Note The NRICH web site has a neat, software-based challenge which they call Poly Plug Pattern, which could be a partner to this activity. Materials One Poly Plug per person Poly Plug Frame

Procedure Sketch a Poly Plug Frame on the board and ask a child to tell you any starting number. Write this in the top left corner. Ask another child to tell you what the group counting number will be for today and tell children that we will be counting forward. Show that you mean going across the top row left to right, then across the next row in the same way as reading a book. This is an appropriate start the first time you use Pattern Boards, but as the children become more familiar and confident there are options. You can: start at the top left and count backwards start at the bottom right and count backwards start anywhere and count forwards and backwards encourage the use of decimals or fractions change the 'geography' of how the circles are filled in, for example, snaking at the end of a line as in Plug Snakes. Fill in some of the cells and discuss any patterns that develop. Ask children to make predictions about what goes here without having all the information leading up to that circle. How did you know that number goes here? Can we check it another way? Complete the whiteboard example.

Content addition facts beyond 10 addition facts to 10 counting division group (or skip) counting mathematical conversation multiplication odd & even numbers operations - whole number pattern generalisation pattern interpretation pattern recognition problem solving recording - written subtraction writing numerals

• Hand out a Poly Plug Frame to each child and ask them to create their own pattern from their own starting number in the same way as the example.
• When it is finished they swap with their partner who checks the pattern, with the help of their calculator if necessary.

Now I want you to pop all the plugs out of your red board and put them in the bag. Then make a pattern or picture by placing yellow plugs in the red board.

• The completed board patterns are placed over the Poly Plug Frame. Some of the pattern numbers will show through the spaces.
• Leave the boards on the tables where they are and swap children to a different board on a different table.

Now the challenge for you is to work out the numbers under the yellow plugs without looking.

Example

A blank Plug Frame with a pattern written in.

A yellow plug pattern placed over the top.

Challenge: What numbers are under the yellow plugs?

This one isn't so hard, but children soon become a lot trickier. Connecting with Predict A Count The initial instructions in this activity are very similar to those in Predict A Count which uses a calculator as an aid to recording patterns. Children can use the pattern they generate in Predict A Count today as the numbers they record in the Poly Plug Frame tomorrow.

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