A pattern hunt

One way that students may explore familiar patterns is to organise a pattern hunt.

This activity can be adapted for all age groups.

It may be restricted to the school grounds, or students could be instructed to hunt in and around their homes and bring the results back to school.

Students will encounter a wide range of patterns.

For each example they find, they should:

• draw the pattern
• describe what sort of pattern it is
• try to explain why the object has this pattern.

When students come back to the classroom, they should:

• share their patterns and compare them with each other
• classify them (e.g. various types of repeating or symmetrical patterns, natural or manufactured, precise or approximate)
• represent each different type of pattern using symbols, models or digital images.