Welcome back to Porter Library’s Kinder Club Kit blog. Each season, Mrs. K. and Ms. Jamie will put together a Kinder Club Kit containing a variety of early literacy activities that will help your child get ready to make the big leap into kindergarten.
Today’s kit highlights patterns and sequencing!
Patterns
Patterns are any set of shapes, numbers, letters or objects that are repeated. From the stripes on your socks to the rhythms in music, patterns are everywhere! When children recognize patterns, they learn to anticipate what comes next. Patterns are one of the foundations of mathematics. By recognizing patterns, children start to grasp basic mathematical concepts such as numbers, shapes, and the relationships between them. Help some of our favorite friends, Julia and Grover search for patterns!
Now that you’ve learned about patterns with Julia and Grover, look at the image below. Can you name the objects in each of the rows? Look at the top row. The pattern in the top row is blue crayon, red scissors, blue crayon, red scissors. What image should go in the question mark box? Now, let’s try the second row. Which shape should go in the question mark box to complete the pattern? Great job! Are you ready for a tricky one? Look at the bottom row with the clouds and flowers. Do we need to put a cloud or flower in the box to complete the pattern? Should it be small or large?
Included in your Kinder Club Kit this month is a set of links and pattern activity cards provided by msperezclassroom from Teachers Pay Teachers. How many links are in your kit? What color links are in your kit? Use the links provided to make the patterns on your activity cards. If it is hard to focus on one link pattern, feel free to cut your activity cards into three separate pattern challenges or use scrap paper to cover them up like in the image below. When you’ve completed the patterns provided, see how many patterns of your own you can create.
Did you notice the caterpillar packet courtesy of Straight from the Belly from Teachers Pay Teachers included in your kit? Any idea what we could do with all the construction paper circles included with your caterpillar worksheets? Wait…what? Did you say we could use the circles to match the patterns on the caterpillars? Yes! You are right! You can also use the circles to make your own patterns!
The last pattern activity in your Kinder Club kit is a tangram puzzle. A tangram is a puzzle made up of shapes that can be arranged to make many different designs. How many tangram pieces are in your bag? What shapes and colors are they? Use the pieces included in your kit to complete the tangram design provided. After, you’ve finished the printed tangram puzzle, see how many other designs you can make using your tangram pieces and imagination.
Sequencing
Sequencing is the ability to arrange events, images and thoughts in a particular order. It is a fundamental skill that occurs naturally in your daily routines. When you wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, brush your teeth and then get dressed to go play outside, you’ve just completed a sequence of events! Following a recipe to make chocolate chip cookies with your grown up is another example of a sequence.
Look at the image below and put each row of images in the correct order. Can you find the shiny red apple in the top row? Tap it with your finger. What image should be next? Tap it with your finger. Which image is last in the sequence of eating an apple? Tap the final object with your finger. Great job! Next, try rearranging the row of alphabet letters into the correct order by reading them out loud while tapping them with your finger. Was that easy or hard? Finally, try making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the bottom row. Use your finger to tap out the correct order.
In the Kinder Club Kit you picked up this week, we included a Butterfly Life Cycle Hat craft. Color the stages of the butterfly life cycle, then cut them out and glue them in the correct order on your strip of green construction paper. If you need help remembering the order of the stages, use the song in the image below provided by Kinder Irick as a guide or listen to Life Cycle of a Butterfly by Jack Hartmann. After you’ve listened to the song and added your life cycle pictures to your hat, cut out the printed word for each stage and match them to the correct stage. Your final step is to ask a grown up to fit the hat to the right size around your head and attach the ends with staples or tape.
Also included in your Kinder Club Kit are Planting Seeds Sequencing Cards courtesy of KidSparkz through Teachers Pay Teachers. For this activity, color and cut out each picture sequence card. Then, put the cards in the correct sequence. If needed, use the accompanying Planting Seeds song sheet to help figure out the correct order or listen to Planting Seeds by The Kiboomers.
Additional Resources
Looking for more information and fun ways to incorporate patterns and sequencing into your child’s routine, check out the recommendations below.
Reading Rockets: Patterns and Categorizing
Reading Rockets: Teaching Sequence
PBS Kids: 8 Fun Ways to Help Kids Learn Patterns
PBS Kids: Playing With Patterns
PBS Kids: Step It Out Game
Growing Book by Book: Step by Step How-To Books
Thanks for visiting the Kinder Club Kit blog today! Our next kit will be available to pick up on September 15. Registration begins September 8 @ westlakelibrary.org/events or call the Youth Services Department @ 440-250-5471.
