‘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 preschoolers, kindergarteners, or first graders. It’s a fun, easy prep activity to add to your small groups or themed math centers this month!
*Pair with our Gingerbread Centers & Activities for Pre-K/Kindergarten
Gumdrop Pattern Printable
We work on a variety of patterns in kindergarten, typically starting with AB patterns like red, green, red, green. This gumdrop pattern 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!
How to Prep
If you are wanting to play this more than once or use it as a math center, I would recommend laminating the activity sheet and providing dry erase markers for the coloring. The students can simply color their own invented patterns, or use manipulatives like counting bears or unifix cubes to build patterns in the rectangle.
To begin, I give each student their own small cup of gumdrops. This lets them play and learn, and then they can take their own gumdrops home to eat later. This also eliminates having everyone share from the same bowl, maybe “eating the manipulatives” etc.
How to Play
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.
After a few teacher-led rounds the kids were excited to take turns providing the pattern for the group to complete. We were able to repeat this many times! They loved it!
RELATED RESOURCE: Word Problems for Kindergarten – December Edition
Grab Your Free Copy
Ready to build some fun gumdrop patterns of your own? Grab your copy of the gumdrop pattern printable by clicking the large, yellow button below!
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So beautiful and fun! Thanks for sharing!