Gumdrop Pattern Printable

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‘Tis the season for holiday cheer and tons of festive fun, including one of my most favorite themes… gingerbread! What pairs perfectly with gingerbread? Why, gumdrops of course! This gumdrop pattern printable is a fun, hands-on way to learn about patterns with your preschooler, kindergartener, or first grader and makes a fun, easy prep math center this month!

We work on a variety of patterns in kindergarten, typically starting with AB patterns like red, green, red, green.

This activity is especially great in that you can work on ANY pattern you choose, whether it be AB, ABC, ABB, or AAB, just to name the most common for early learners.

To set this up for my kids, I gave them each their own cup of gumdrops. This lets them play and learn, and then they can take their own cup home to eat later. This also elimates having everyone share from the same bowl, maybe “eating the manipulatives” etc.

If you are wanting to play this more than once however, you can easily use the activity sheet without gumdrops. Kids can simply color their own invented patterns, or use items like counting bears or unifix cubes to build patterns in the rectangle.

We first built a pattern in the rectangle to get hands-on, visual practice with a specific pattern. In my small group, I kicked it off by calling out a pattern. “Can you show me an AB pattern with your gumdrops?”

After the pattern was built, it was time to color the first row of gumdrops to represent it!

Then, we cleared the rectangle and built a new pattern. I used red and green gumdrops only, but any colors would do.