Name Pattern

Early Years (Age 3 – 6)

Curriculum Goal

Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour

  • Recognize, explore, describe, and compare patterns, and extend, translate, and create them, using the core of a pattern and predicting what comes next (#18).

Context

  • Before students complete this activity they should have previous experience with patterns and constructing them. ​
  • All students will begin in groups of 4-6 then will eventually break off to work on their name pattern individually.

Materials

  • Name pattern grid (Appendix A or Appendix B depending on the number of letters in each student’s name)​
  • Pencils ​
  • Markers

Lesson

  • Tell students they will be using letters in their names to recognize patterns. ​
  • Students with 4 or 8 letters in their name will use Appendix A (7×7)​
  • All other children will use Appendix B (8×8)​
  • In groups of 4-6, students will write their name in the long box at the top of their grid (e.g. “ZACHARY”). This represents their building block.​
  • Then students proceed by writing one letter of their name per box in pencil from left to right.​
  • Students will repeatedly fill in the boxes with the letters of their name until all boxes are filled.​
  • Students are then required to choose a different colour marker for each letter in their name (e.g. the name ”Emma” would have three different colours since both “m’s” would have the same colour).​
  • Instruct children to trace over the letters they originally wrote in pencil with the appropriate marker colour. ​
  • The goal of this activity is to allow children to visually recognize the different patterns that their name creates.

Look Fors

  • How quickly and easily can children identify patterns using the letters of their names?
  • What skills do students use when identifying patterns?

Related Lessons

Practice identifying, expanding and justifying patterns.

Students create patterns and describe them to a group.

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