Pretty patterns

Pretty patterns game

Pretty patterns is a game designed to improve your little one's ability to identify, continue and create patterns.

What you need:

  • Pen
  • Coloured pencils
  • Markers
  • Paper
  • A number of the same items such as six toy cars, six clothes pegs, cutlery


This activity involves having your little one complete a pattern you have begun for them.

Start your pattern by placing a few objects in a sequence. For example, car-peg-car-peg or fork-spoon-fork-spoon.

The younger the child the more tangible the pattern needs to be and with fewer number of items.

Older kids will enjoy following pen and paper patterns that they can recreate on paper. For example, circle-square-circle-square. You could also create coloured patterns such as red-blue-red-blue. Once your little one has mastered this (which will not take long at all) you can move to more complex patterns such as red square-blue triangle-green line-red square-blue triangle-green line.

Extension: Once your little one has completely mastered more complex patterns, you could give them a pattern such as square-circle-rectangle-square-circle-triangle-rectangle etc and have them fill in the missing picture. You could also have your little one start a number of patterns on a piece of paper and put this away for another day for them to finish.

Find more learning activities for 2 -3 year olds