Patterning
Math Tub Ideas

Patterning is a fun, easy math tub to create. You can find and make them with just about anything. Even if you do not have "store bought" math tools, you can do these activities.

Some other items to use are crayons, bottle caps, erasers and dye-cuts.

My students love to work with unifix cubes. They can be manipulated by tiny hands, are quite easy to come by and are in about a zillion colors these days.

During this week the kids were supposed to make one that was as tall as they were. It was a blast to see them building, laying, measuring, building, laying, measuring...

It turned it a little competition who could build the "coolest" tower. While the activity was motivating, it also served as a great informal assessment!

This activity was perfect in my opinion because the children could self-select the difficulty. Some created ABABAB and others created AABAABAAB.

This next lesson was to find as many things as they could in the classroom that were the same length as their creation and record the information on a 4 square paper.

This is a great idea of students who just can't seem to get a grasp on patterns, measurement or recording data.

We actually used this activity several times during the year because the children kept requesting it... But each time the length had to be longer and longer.

Each month when we are finished with the calendar numbers, I turn the calendar pieces into a tub for the children to recreate with manipulatives.

This is always a popular activity because they tend to get really long on the floor, and the kids feel very accomplished when they finish.

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