## North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

#### Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

#### Goal: Children compare, sort, group, organize and measure objects and create patterns in their everyday environment.

#### Skill Progression: Patterning

#### Age: 33-36 Months

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### Notices simple repeat patterns (short, long, short, long) in block set

Situations for Observation of Skill

Play with the child in dramatic play about making cookies with play dough. Have different colors of play dough, plastic plates and a cookie sheet.

Elicitation Strategy

Talk about how to arrange the cookies on the tray. “How should we put the cookies on the tray?” I’m going to make a row here, and you can make a row here. I think I’ll make a pattern with mine. A long cookie and then a short cookie. What pattern are you going to make?”

Behavior Observed

See if the child imitates the adult’s pattern or creates another pattern. Is there a repeat sequence to the child’s pattern?

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to help the child see patterns on his clothing, in nature, in art, and so on. Parents often don’t think of talking about patterns with their child. Help them understand that this is an important math ability.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.