Friday, November 25, 2011

Playing with Patterns

While catching up on my backlog of PUBYAC digests, I came across a reference to some Native American games.  One of the games mentioned was "Pebble Patterns."  Similar to "Memory" this game requires players to remember and then recreate a pattern made from pebbles.  This inspired me to make a similar game for my upcoming family story time. 

Using Microsoft Publisher, I made a circle (3 1/2 inches in diameter) and copied it 9 times so that I had two pages with 5 circles on each.  I then inserted clip art from Publisher into each circle.  After printing them, I outlined each circle in black to make it stand out against the white board that I use.


I use a magnet board so I will paste the circles on sturdier paper, cut them out and add magnets.  (Felt, interfacing or Velcro could be used for flannel boards.) 

I will place the circles on the board in a simple pattern then remove them.  I will probably start with three or four in a straight line.  I will add circles until they remember all 10.  Then I will arrange the circles in different patterns to see if the children can remember which circle goes where.  Since I will need to remember them, I plan to write down the patterns I will be using and have that information nearby.

What I like about this concept is that it can be simple or complex.  The circles can contain any image or pattern you want to use.  They can even be simply colored circles so that it can be played with young children.  One could make three of each color and then make color patterns (e.g. one red, two blue, two red, one blue).  Older children could even make their own sets of circles to play the game. 

Katie is hosting this week's Flannel Friday on her blog Story Time Secrets.

1 comment:

  1. Great idea! What a fun challenge for your storytime families--and so friendly, too, since everyone can help everyone else remember the sequence. I do like the idea of using other motifs for other storytime themes--you could do this with any flannel set!

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