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Our learners have got used to our class habits and enjoy all the opportunities to work alone, alongside, and with other children. We started our unit by looking at patterns on clothes, then we investigated patterns in our surroundings, and then we celebrated our diversity by looking at traditional patterns from around the world. The patterns of wrapping paper led us into the festive season. We were exhilarated to perform our rainbow dance for our friends at assembly and later, at our exit point exhibition, for our parents. We also loved the Sinterklaas visit as is custom locally as well singing together at the ISG Winter Show.
With so many amazing patterns to be found in art, we saw lots of little artists at work! Land art was looked at to inspire the learners to form patterns in the tuff tray using the autumn treasures we collected on our pattern walk. Some learners also pasted and or printed with dried leaves. We looked at aboriginal dot paintings and recreated them using cotton buds. Mosaic patterns with squares were created and Escher inspired pictures were coloured. Learners also had the opportunity to make chains with shapes or beads.
We emphasised the musical patterns in language such as rhythm and rhyme (or the same sounds at the end, as we also called it) and even some alliteration (or the same sound at the beginning). Awareness of these aspects helps learners in smoother reading and writing at later stages. Our patterns topic wouldn’t have been complete without rhyming stories as well as ‘Elmer the patterned elephant’. We also loved hearing patterns in stories told in other languages by our various mystery readers.
The Pattern topic involved plenty of geometric opportunities. The children looked carefully at patterns and copied, continued, and created repeating patterns of objects, colours, shapes, sounds, and actions. As time went by, these patterns became increasingly complex. We had plenty of fun looking at symmetry using mirrors or splatter paintings. The names of various 2D shapes were practiced in the process, as well as some positional language. Many learners discovered patterns in numbers when choosing to lay out numbers up to a 100 in lines of 10. The children were also challenged to count in 2’s and say one number only in their heads instead of out loud. Another Elmer song helped us to count backwards from 10.
The learners were able to choose and experiment actively with all their senses, a range of materials. We looked at patterns in our surrounding and nature, particularly during our pattern walk. We also used a lot of ‘plans’ or other forms of spatial representations to recreate patterns, symmetrical images, and even an Elmer elephant.
Throughout the theme, learners had opportunities to develop the skills of making choices, paying attention, and concentrating. The Elmer narratives covered expressing a range of emotions as well as embracing our own true colours that make us special.
