Today’s play-of-the-day is Dinovember patterns and patterning skills. These are great ways to have fun and develop some smart brain strategies.
Are there some dinosaur toys at your house? As your child is playing with dinosaurs, you can play a little too. Show your child how you can make a pattern; for instance, purple dino/blue dino, purple dino/blue dino. You can share what you’ve done and ask your child what color of dinosaur comes next. If your child doesn’t know, or uses another color, you can add some more purple/blues.
When kids have figure out how a pattern works, they can continue patterns in long lines or even circles. But this takes lots of experiences and exposure to patterns. Older kids and those who get the idea may make more complicated patterns using a group of 3 objects, then 4 and more as well as with sizes and other aspects.
Patterns do not have to be only dinosaurs. Another series could be dinosaur/block, dinosaur block. This is useful when the dinosaur toys are all a similar color. Or maybe car/dinosaur, car dinosaur.
The skill of recognizing patterns may not seem important but language and math are based on patterns. So is Nature and for that matter, our nature too. According to Matt Powers, “Out of all mental skills, pattern recognition is said to have the highest correlation to intelligence.”
Patterns aren’t just for kids. Think of the stock market. Successful traders looks for patterns and trends. So do big companies. From weather forecasters to plant scientists, psychologists to engineers, we all depend on patterns. Patterns are key because they contain information about relationships and connections, helping to understand the world around us. Playing with dinosaurs and other toys, can support the development of patterning skills. Will some dino play be part of the pattern in your child’s day?