Holiday Patterning Bin

I was brainstorming some holiday activities and was thinking about sensory bin idea and I also wanted to do some patterning activities. Then I thought I could combine the two ideas into a holiday patterning bin.

I collected red, green and white items to put in the bin. I used Lego duplos, foam blocks, plastic stacking rings, plastic links, and pom poms. I also added some plastic ornaments that were patterned- plastic candy canes and striped ball ornaments. You can use any assortment of blocks, manipulatives, pompoms you have on hand for starting out with patterning I would limit the assortment to two or three colors.

I also drew some Christmas items that can be patterned in red, white and green. My thinking was that they would show the boys examples of the patterns you could make with the three colors and also be used as mats to place the items on. However E saw the pictures differently he wanted to make  patterns with them and threw a small fit that there wasn't more than one of each.

 Making some patterns.

After we worked together to make some patterns I let the boys explore and play. L found a tape measure and wanted to measure everything. Its interesting to see how kids take an activity in their own direction.

Have fun exploring.