Mathematics
Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+80 XP
What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

Repeating Patterns and Their Rule

Explore repeating patterns by spotting the unit that keeps coming back, then use it to continue the pattern and predict shapes far along the line.

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    1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

    Illustration for Getting StartedLook at this border running along the top of the board: red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. What colour do you think comes next? And here is the tricky part: which little part keeps coming back again and again?

    2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

    Look at the rows of shapes on the screen. Each pattern has a part that keeps coming back, called the repeating unit. See if you can spot where one unit ends and the next begins.

    3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

    Let's build some repeating patterns together. I'll call out a unit, like triangle, hexagon, hexagon, and one of you will come up and lay it three times. Then we'll check together that every repeat matches.

    Lay the repeating unit three times

    4 - Draw a Pattern in Your Copy ~2 mins

    COPYBOOK MOMENT

    In your maths copy, draw a repeating pattern with a unit of three shapes. Then draw a box around one full unit and write how many units you drew altogether.

    5 - Class Challenge ~7 mins

    Let's work through a few of these together. First we'll continue a two-shape pattern. Then a longer pattern with two squares in it. Next we'll find a shape that is hidden in a gap. And last, we'll work out what the 10th shape would be.

    The trick

    Count in whole units rather than one shape at a time to work out what sits at the 10th place.

    Continue, fill and predict

    6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

    MATHS TALK

    How does finding the repeating unit let you say what sits much further along the pattern, without drawing every shape in between? Remember the trick we used: count in whole units, not single shapes — five units of two shapes took us all the way to the 10th place.

    7 - What's Next ~3 mins

    What we learned today

    • A repeating pattern is built from a unit that keeps coming back.
    • Once you spot the unit, you can continue the pattern and fill any gap.
    • Counting in whole units lets you say what sits far along the line.
    Coming up

    Next we look at counting patterns and multiples on the hundred square, where the numbers that come up when we count in fives or tens make their own patterns.

    Pupil practice
    Module 10 · Algebra: Patterns, Rules and Number Sentences Mixed
    Lesson 109 · Repeating Patterns and Their Rule
    Download Activity Book page (PDF)
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