Patterning Bracelets

Today and yesturday I did a two part activity teaching student about patterning. Yesterday we did a simple worksheet where the students practiced recognizing and creating simple AB, AAB, AABB, and ABC patterns. Today the students made their own AB patterned bracelets. The students had been working on patterning all week so by the time they did my sheet many of them had a good understanding of what to do. I found more students had difficulty creating patterns than recognizing them. Today when we made out bracelets, everyone seemed to really have fun with it. I called students to work with me throughout the day in groups of 4-6 where they chose two colours of beads and strung them in an AB pattern. Some of the students had a little trouble at the beginning, but once they had done a few repetitions it became almost effortless, very similarly to when I made spider webs with them a few week back: the repetition of a few simple steps starts complicated but becomes easy and even fun once they have the hang of it.

Here is a download of the sheet the students completed on Thursday:

Here are some pictures of making the bracelets:

#Math #Patterning #Patterns #Bracelet