M&M Patterns

As a part of our study of repeating and additive patterns, we had a little fun with M&Ms. The students first used paper M&Ms that I made. They made several color repeating patterns and used craft sticks to divide the repeating sections. We then said the letter labels for each pattern and discussed how they were the same or different. On the next day, the students used the paper M&Ms to create positional patterns. The students were a little stumped at first when I gave each group a set of single-colored M&Ms but they soon figured out that if they turned the M's different ways they could create positional patterns. And, of course, it is even more fun and tasty to create patterns with real M&Ms!