Math & 123sPreschoolers14 Comments
Playing with Lego blocks is a great two-for-one activity for preschoolers! Build early math skills with block patterning and work on fine motor skills, too.
George is in Lego building mode lately. He’s really getting the hang of the “big boy” Legos and builds constantly!
He is still working on following directions to build a set. He’s only 4, so he still has a lot to learn.
George has shocked me though recently with his understanding of patterns. He points them out to me a lot!
Even abstractly when we talk about something like taking turns. He really grasps ABAB patterns!
Block Patterning with Legos for Preschoolers
When I sat down to build Legos with him one afternoon I noticed a small tower of Legos in a pattern. I pointed it out to George and he said he wanted to keep it.
I suggested building onto it, but he couldn’t find any more of those colors to continue the pattern. So I looked around to find more for him and he built onto the tower in a pattern.
While he made his pattern, I started another one since he seemed so excited about patterns. This time I pushed him a little bit, doing an ABC pattern.
I started the pattern tower with 5 blocks in an ABC pattern: yellow, white, red.
I kept finding the correct colored blocks (my kids have a hard time with finding blocks, do yours?) while he built and built, telling me the colors of the pattern.
I’d keep asking him leading questions:
What colors comes next?
Then what?
He struggled a little bit a couple of times. I’d then go through the pattern with him and he’d find his mistake right away!
We did several patterns including an AABAAB and an AABBAABB.
He added them to his “police station” that he’s been working on.
Then he wanted to count how tall his towers were which was also great one-to-one correspondence practice for him!
We did patterning with Legos with Henry a couple of years ago, too.
See how he did it below and look at George at the end! My! Time has gone by fast!
Henry’s Block Patterning with Duplo Blocks
Using Legos (or other blocks for that matter) to make patterns have been on my mind since I collected a bunch of ideas for blocks.
So, one day when the boys and I were playing with our Legos, I started creating a pattern. I went with an AAB pattern since Henry already know ABAB.
I casually talked about what I was doing while the boys were still doing their own thing.
“Yellow, yellow, red. Yellow, yellow, red.”
“I’m making a pattern…”
“Yellow, yellow… what comes next?”
After a little bit, Henry started answering, “Red!”
So, I handed him my block pattern tower and asked him to keep the pattern going. Leading him along the way, saying the pattern over and over and asking what comes next.
He added to it, continuing the pattern for quite a while.
Then, he changed it up a bit and I asked if that’s what comes next in the pattern.
Henry’s response: “This city has gone crazy!”
Don’t ask me. I don’t know.
But, what I found that was really interesting was that when he did this, he continued his own pattern.
Red, red, red, yellow. (Making an even tougher pattern, AAAB)
And you wonder what George is up to during our fun activities?
Check it out. This is pretty typical George.
I’m continuing on with this block learning activity over at A Mom with a Lesson Plan. After building his pattern tower, Henry did a little measuring with it too!
Check out my guest post over there: Measuring with Legos.
Blocks are so versatile! How do you use blocks with your children at home?
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Siret says
Great activity! but my boy doesn’t like to repeat my patterns, he says my colors are all wrong. “Mom, i’m gonna show how the pattern must be” :P
Sheila @ BrainPowerBoy says
I love all of the different things you can learn just by playing around with LEGO. shared.
JDaniel4's Mom says
Wow! What a wonderful way to pattern!
Allison says
“This city has gone crazy!” Ha ha! Priceless!