Henry’s Pattern Parade

Henry and Ella wanted a parade for their toy animals. Dad gave them large red, yellow and blue wooden blocks. “We can make a colourful path,” said Henry. The animals waited beside an empty strip of cloth.

Henry laid down a red block, a yellow block and a blue block. Then he put down red, yellow and blue again. “My pattern repeats,” he said. Ella followed the colours with her finger.

Ella added a yellow block at the end. Henry paused. “Let’s read the path together,” he said. “Red, yellow, blue. Red, yellow, blue.” He looked at the next block. “What comes after blue in our pattern?”

Ella looked back at the beginning. “Red!” she said. She moved the yellow block aside and put a red block in its place. “The repeating part starts with red, so red comes next.”

Henry added a yellow block after the new red one. Ella added blue. Now the same three colours appeared three times. They pointed along the whole path, saying each colour in order without skipping a block.

Dad brought a toy elephant to the parade. “Could your pattern keep going?” he asked. Henry nodded. “The repeating part is red, yellow, blue. We could put that part down again and again.”

The children marched their toy animals beside the path. Ella tapped a matching beat: clap, tap, stamp; clap, tap, stamp. Henry laughed. “That repeats too! A pattern can be made with sounds and actions.”

When the parade ended, Ella began a new path. She chose blue, red and yellow. “This is a different repeating part,” she said. Henry watched carefully. This time, he knew to look at the beginning first.