Patterns and sorting
Maths · Early Years · The School
What comes next?
Red, blue, red, blue, red… what comes next? Blue! A pattern is something that repeats in the same order. Say the pattern out loud as you point — hearing it helps your brain find the repeat. Make patterns with buttons, socks, claps, or jumps: clap-clap-stamp, clap-clap-stamp.
Sorting by a rule
Tip out a box of toys. Put all the RED ones here and everything else there. That is sorting, and the rule was colour. Now do it again by size: big here, small there. The same toys, a different rule, different piles. Always be able to say your rule out loud — that is what makes it sorting rather than tidying.
Why this is maths
Patterns and sorting are how mathematicians start every problem: find the rule, group things that behave the same. When you sort shapes by number of corners later, or spot that 2, 4, 6, 8 goes up by two, you are doing exactly what you are doing today with buttons.
Take a big red button, a small red button, a big blue button, a small blue button, a big blue button and a small red button. Sort by COLOUR: three red, three blue. Now mix them and sort by SIZE: three big, three small. The same six things made completely different piles, because the RULE changed. That is why you say the rule out loud before you start — otherwise nobody can tell whether you sorted them correctly.