October 04th, 2019

The Tucker Room children have been very interested in patterns this year. They have created them by drawing as well as working at the light table, in our game area, and in construction. They spot them everywhere: in clothing, architecture, animals, and of course insects. Recognizing patterns and understanding how they work are important mathematical skills, helping children to make predictions. Today, we learned that recognizing a pattern can help us to predict a regularly recurring event.

A group of children worked to update the fall calendar with symbols representing our sharing days--understanding that the Bee Stings and Silver Hot Dogs alternate, with each group doing show-and-tell every other Friday.

When Lou Lou and Charlie finished updating the month of December, we realized there was a problem: The Silver Hot Dogs were scheduled to share two weeks in a row. Rearranging the symbols so that they both alternated and continued the sequence from November was tricky.
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Over the course of several tries, Sam, Jack and Rowan joined to help. Recognizing what the pattern should be, Rowan began to say aloud “Bee Stings, Silver Hot Dogs, Bee Stings, Silver Hot Dogs, Bee Stings, Silver Hot Dogs...” Very quickly, it became clear to all what they needed to do to make the calendar reflect this alternating series. It was beautiful critical thinking, teamwork, and application of their deepening understanding of patterns.