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Thinking play

Invent a Pattern Rule

Child builds a repeating or growing pattern with objects and challenges a parent to work out the rule.

Cartoon illustration of a parent and child at home doing Invent a Pattern Rule.
  • Age6 to 10 years
  • Time5 to 15 minutes
  • EnergyCalm
  • CostFree
  • WhereIndoors
  • PrepNone

Your child lays out a pattern with small objects and then challenges you to guess the hidden rule and add the next few pieces correctly.

How to do it

  1. Gather a set of objects that come in a few types, such as coins, blocks, or pasta shapes.
  2. Show your child a simple example pattern first, like red, blue, red, blue, and name the rule out loud.
  3. Ask your child to invent their own pattern and lay out enough of it for the rule to be guessable.
  4. Take your turn guessing the rule and adding the next item, letting your child tell you if you got it.
  5. Swap roles so your child guesses a pattern you make, then let them build a trickier one.

What you need

  • Small objects

Make it yours

Younger, 5-6 years: Stick to a two-item repeat such as ABAB. Older, 8-10 years: Try growing patterns where each group gets one bigger, or patterns using two features at once like colour and sise. Siblings: One child builds and both others race to whisper the rule

Try this with your child.

Tell PLAI™ about your child and this moment. It shapes the activity to fit.

Try it in the app