A PATTERN WALK
Go round the outdoor area or round the local environment with a group of children and a camera. Take photographs of patterns featured in the environment, such as brick walls, railings, road markings, leaves, gates, and so on. Make bark rubbings, and rubbings of surfaces with patterns. Make a display of the photographs and rubbings. Encourage children to identify other examples of the same patterns in their journeys.
MOVEMENT CIRCUIT
Set up a circuit using some of the outdoor equipment, such as: over the step, through the tunnel, along the bench, over the step, through the tunnel, along the bench, and develop this into a repeated chant to emphasise the repetition in the pattern.
Set up an obstacle course with a set repeated sequence, such as mat, block, mat, block, where children go along, up, down, along, up, down. Encourage them to chant these words while they do it.
SAND DETECTIVES
* Have a selection of shoes such as trainers and Wellington boots with patterned treads. Children use these to make footprints in damp sand. Talk about the patterns made, and see if children can identify each shoe from its footprint.
* Provide a range of large vehicles with wheels with treads. Encourage the children to run the wheels over the dry sand and talk about the patterns made by different wheels.
* Encourage the children to run tyres through puddles, and walk through puddles, and talk about the patterns left behind on the dry asphalt.
WASHING THE CLOTHES
Set up a washing activity with the dolls' clothes. Emphasise the sequence of events. Children wash the clothes in the bowl of soapy water, rinse the clothes in two separate bowls of clean water, squeeze the clothes out, then peg them on the line. Talk about the sequence of clothes pegged out on the line: which item is first, second and third.
SOUND PATTERNS
* Use drums to make musical patterns. Use empty aluminium cans in various sizes for the drums and wooden mallets for beaters. Paint the drums to make them look more attractive, but don't match the colour and the size so that children can concentrate on the sound rather than the colour patterns.
* Encourage the children to experiment with the cans to make different sounds.
* Draw their attention to the different sounds made by the different-sized tins, and to make patterns with the sounds.
* You could start with just two cans to make the patterning simpler.
* Children can record the sound patterns they make.
* Some children could invent a notation for recording their sound pattern.
HAND AND FEET PATTERNS
* Make patterns by clapping, stamping, jumping, hopping, bending, tapping knees and patting heads.
* Begin a pattern, such as clap, clap, stamp, clap, clap, stamp, clap, clap, stamp... and children join in as soon as they can work out what you are doing.
* Invite children to suggest further actions to include, such as jumping and bending. Ask them to start a simple pattern, such as jump, jump, jump, bend, jump, jump, jump, bend... and everyone joins in.
* For children with more experience, use just one movement and vary the speed to make the pattern, such as jump, jump, jump-jump, jump; jump, jump, jump-jump, jump or clap, clap-clap, clap, clap-clap...
* For children with more experience, record a sequence of movements with coloured cubes. For example, represent clap, clap, stamp, clap, clap, stamp with red, red, blue, red, red, blue and challenge the children to do the actions as you point to the cubes.
