For students in the early years, I have taught the concept of patterning by asking them to complete a colour pattern using popsicle sticks. They identified the correct colour order for three colour patterns by waving the sticks in the air before I completed the patterns on the whiteboard and affirmed their answers.

They start to recognise the logical sequence of patterns by verbally identifying and predicting the colour arrangement of the popsicle sticks  This activity could be extended to physical movements where they will make clapping patterns, body movements or sitting arrangements.

In future, I would provide students with opportunities to individually create a logical sequence where they make patterns with their partners through verbal instructions without seeing each other’s work. They could also play the Code Breaker game where they have to recreate the secret code based on verbal instructions.

Image is taken from https://www.kmart.com.au/product/code-breaker-game/2907807.