Fun With Pattern Blocks

1-2-3 Come Do Some Pattern Block Activities With Me.

Pattern blocks are one of my students’ favorite math manipulatives. We count, sort, pattern, and do all sorts of interesting things with them.

With that in mind, I wanted to design some additional activities that would help practice a variety of standards while they “played” with them. What started out as a game & booklet, turned into a jumbo "Fun With Pattern Blocks" packet.

If you don’t have a wooden or plastic set of pattern blocks, no worries, I’ve included patterns so that you can make your own paper ones.

preview pattern block fun Pick and choose your favorites and use them as math centers, whole group activities, games, worksheets, homework, and an easy assessment tool.

They’re great for early finishers and something to tuck in your sub folder as well.

The packet includes:

* Anchor charts, pocket chart cards & posters.

* Four, pattern block shape BOOKLETS, with 4-on-a-page patterns, which make a “just the right size” mini booklet:

1. Shape UP: featuring “color me” kids holding a shape.
2. Pattern Block Fun: featuring “connect the dots” and “finish drawing the shape” pages.
3. Spying Shapes Inside Shapes: discovering, counting, coloring and naming the various shapes and …
4. Maze Craze: featuring mini mazes in the various shapes, such as “You’re hung up in a hexagon! Can you find your way out?”

* A set of “Block Heads”, which I use for flashcards, decorative anchor charts, & the “Four Corners” game. I've included a variety of silly eyeballs to mix & match. Their "mouth" names the shape.

You can also use as a whole-group craftivity & have students pick their favorite and make one of their own, writing attributes, and why it’s their favorite on the back.

* A "trace, write & color" flip-a-strip booklet, as well as a full-page booklet, which can be used for a center, anchor charts or a class-made book.

* All sorts of GAMES, many of which can be used as quick, easy and super-fun assessments, such as the “I Spy A Pattern Block!” worksheets.

* There are a variety of dice games as well, like our favorite “Rack Up a Stack!”

* Other games include: “Trapped in a Trapezoid”, “Hiding in a Hexagon”, “Trapezoid Towers”, “Rhombus Race”, “Fill it Up”, “Spin to Win”, “Two Trapped Trapezoids”, “Triangle Trees”, and a “Which trapezoid is bigger? challenge.

* The “Memory Match” game cards can also be used for, Sorting, Patterning, “I Have; Who Has?” 1-to-1 correspondence, “Kaboom!” and “What’s Missing?” activities and games.

traps to a hex pix Students practice greater & less than, color words, alphabetizing, strategy, graphing, tally marks and addition.

hexagon fill it up copy * The number strip PUZZLES (1-10 & 11-20), help with number recognition, counting & sequencing.

* And finally, a cute pattern block name craft, which makes a colorful bulletin board display, and provides a simple way to review shapes, colors, letters, capitalization, alphabetizing and patterns.

patttern block names There are several pattern options, including one with the shapes inside square blocks. Choose your favorite, or give children a choice.

Today's featured FREEBIE is a simple craft I call, Pattern Block Pals.

The gloved-hands & tennis shoes on their feet at the end of colorful accordion-folded legs add the "Awww-dorable!" factor.

Completed projects make a super-cute "Getting In Shape" bulletin board display.

Besides my featured FREEBIE you may also be interested in these other FREE pattern block activities:

pattern block pictures Holly and Heather over at Prekinders have over 20 free pattern block picture mats in full color, as well as black and white.
ABC Teach also has a big variety of pattern block picture mats: toys, animals, flowers, and some really interesting and challenging patterns.

alphabet pattern block mats cov I was really excited to find a complete set of FREE pattern block mats for upper & lowercase letters as well as numbers over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Erica also has a nice set of "complete the pattern" cards.