Abstraction of repeating patterns

Here is a typical repeating pattern made from cubes.

Repeating pattern of coloured cubes.

Replace each blue cube with a tall red block (or two red blocks joined together) and you get the same pattern.

Repeating pattern of heights.

Or replace the blocks with beads and change the colours. It is still the same pattern.

Repeating pattern of coloured beads.

Or use drawings instead of objects. It is still the same pattern.

Repeating pattern of shapes.

Even 'sit-sit-stand' repeated is the same pattern, as is this musical pattern.

Repeating pattern of music notes.

To help students see that all these patterns are the same, describe the unit of repeat using initial letters — for example RRB for red-red-blue, SST for short-short-tall, and so on.

Eventually, students will see that the exact components or letters are unimportant and they will start to talk about an abstract 'AAB pattern' where the A and B can be literally anything.