Pattern Blocks and Preschoolers

Pattern blocks are a great tool for young learners.  They encourage children to slide, turn, and flip blocks while using their fine motor skills. Playing with pattern blocks exposes to colors, shapes, and texture.  I complied a list of some of our favorite activities done with pattern blocks.

 1.Stack the blocks.  Adeline does not like to stack typical blocks but I can get her to stack these.

2.  Make a train.

3.  Patterning:  I made some pattern templates to help introduce patterning to Adeline.

4.  Make pattern shapes in play dough.

5.  Where is the block?  Hide a block in the play dough and have a child dig through the dough to find the block.

6.  Stick the blocks to clear contact paper taped to a wall.

7.  Sort the pattern blocks by shape.    

8.  Count with pattern blocks.

9.  Sort the blocks by color.  Here I cut some brown bags down and added a color to the front.

10.  Matching to the silhouette of the shape.  Matching an item to the black silhouette is more difficult that exact match of an item.  I made these cards by tracing the shape.

11.  Working some of the great pattern mats at http://prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/.  They have many different mats to print up.