Choice Based Art Stations

Radial Patterns Station

Kinder through Second Grade students practice creating radial patterns using wooden pattern blocks. Below are some examples of their work:

First Grade Overlapping Candy Canes

First Grade needed some practice back in December on how to draw objects in front of others. So, they practiced by drawing overlapping candy canes. They could make them whatever size and add whatever color patterns they wanted.

Third Grade Pattern Spider Webs

The Third Grade students drew spider webs using a variety of straight lines with the aid of a ruler. The free-hand drew curved lines to connect the straight lines forming the spider web. After drawing, the colored each section with crayons in a two-color pattern. They worked on showing variety and balance as they worked. After completing the patterns, they created spiders out of black paper to add to the web.

 

First Grade Pattern Indian Corn

First Grade has been working on using watercolors to paint and also creating patterns. They water colored Indian Corn after observing real life examples. They then used dot paints in red, orange, and yellow to paint the kernels of corn in a pattern of their choice. They also worked on cutting skills by cutting out the Indian Corn. Their corn was added to a grade level cornfield display.

Cool and Warm Hands: Third Grade

Third Grade students created patterns with geometric shapes and cool/warm colors. To integrate math, students had to find either a square or circle that covered the most area. They traced that shape and then found the same shape but with less area. They traced the shape and then repeated this step until they got to the shape that covered the least area. Once their shapes were traced, they traced their handprint in the middle. They then colored the geometric shapes in a pattern of either warm or cool colors. They colored the handprint in the opposite set of colors. For display, I grouped them into warm and cool colors.

Additive Patterns

The students practiced extending additive patterns by following four step cards. They built their patterns with color tiles and verbally identified how the patterns grew and changed. They then worked in cooperative groups to recreate one of the additive patterns using paper color tiles. Individually the students wrote one or two sentences about how the pattern grew.

 

Pattern Block Turkeys

To review repeating patterns, the students creatd pattern block turkeys. They each started with a hexagon and then chose whichever pattern blocks they wanted to create the rest of the pattern.

Number Pattern Turkeys

In math we have been learning about number patterns including odd and even. The students worked in groups to identify even and odd numbers on a 30 chart. Each student was then given a number card. They cirlced their number on their 30 chart and identified if their number was even or odd. They then extended their skip counting pattern five more times. They then created a turkey and wrote their number pattern on the turkey feathers.

Additive Pattern Headbands

Since we are learning more about additive patterns and Thanksgiving, we made additive pattern headbands. We discussed the type of clothes that Native Americans wore and the intricate designs that they added to some of their clothing. The students then used fall colors on sentence strips to follow and recreate multi-step additive patterns. They then added a feather to their headbands.

Additive Patterns

The students practiced creating additive patterns with pattern blocks. After creating several, they chose their favorite to recreate on a sentence strip with paper pattern blocks. I am so thankful to have parent volunteers who cut out all of the paper pattern blocks we needed for our pattern lessons.

M&M Patterns

To reinforce repeating patterns and additive patterns, the students worked in cooperative groups to create patterns with paper M&M manipulatives. They used popsicle sticks to divide the repeating parts. After creating their patterns the students went on a gallery walk to practice labeling the patterns with letters. Next I gave the students only one color of M&M manipulatives. I asked them again to create a pattern. Previous students have been stumped by this challenge but not this group. They immediatley knew that they had to make positional patterns. I attribute this to the amazing quality of teaching we have in our Kindergarten. And, the kids are smart! Some of the groups chose to keep the patterns in a row but turning the M to various positions while other groups chose to move the M&Ms up and down to create a pattern. And of course, hard work deserves a reward. So, the students had the opportunity to build a variety of patterns with real M&Ms and then eat them.

 

 

Repeating Pattern Posters

The students used paper pattern blocks to create repeating patterns using pattern cards written in letter form. They glued the pattern blocks and letter cards on construction paper. The pattern posters are currently on display in our hallway but will soon be bound into a book. The students will be able to use the book to recreate patterns and practice identifying the pattern core. It is amazing to see how many different patterns they were able to create using the same basic letter cards.

More Repeating Patterns

To review repeating patterns the students worked together to create, extend, and label repeating patterns with magnetic pattern blocks.

Pattern Block Fish

To review patterns and shapes, we read Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris and then the students created their own pattern fish. Fellow teachers, I received this particular pattern fish template from a former teammate but you can find similar patterns at PreKinders. The students had to find two different ways to fill in the pattern fish with foam pattern blocks and then they had to choose their favorite one to create with paper pattern blocks. The students then counted and graphed how many of each type of pattern block they used. The students compared the various different ways the fish could be filled using pattern blocks.

Holly Berry Number Lines and Number Patterns

As a review of number patterns, the students created their own number lines on sentence strips using Holly Berries and Holly Leaves. The berries represented the numbers and the leaves represented the space in between the numbers. After the students glued down the berries and leaves, I worked with the students in small groups to identify number pattern rules. Each group was given a different number pattern to complete. For example, one group was given the number pattern 9, 12, 15, 18. So, the students numbered the berries from 9 to 18 in order. They then drew "jumping hills" from 9 to 12 on the top of their number line. They then drew "jumping hills" from 12 to 15 but this time on the bottom of their number line. They then alternated back to the top for 15 to 18. The reason I had them alternate the "jumping hills" from top to bottom was so that they could visually see how many "jumping hills" were between each step in their number pattern. After identifying the pattern, the students wrote the rule, such as "Rule +3" for this example, on their number line. The "jumping hills" are a little hard to see in the pictures because they drew them with red colored pencils in case they needed to erase.