0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe

• Associates objects and actions with their daily rhythm (e.g., reaches for favorite blanket when tired)
• Begins to show understanding of what comes next (e.g., burping after bottle, holding legs up for diapering)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Create and maintain predictable routines for the child’s day, including feeding, resting, bathing, and playing
• Rock and sway the child in rhythmic movements
• Use song to draw the child’s attention to the rhythm of the day (e.g. songs that include such phrases as “good morning,” “time for rest,” “time to say goodbye, see you tomorrow”)
• Rock, sway, swaddle, sing, and talk to the child with a flow and inflection that is repetitive and predictable

8–16 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe

• Hands object back and forth to educator
• Demonstrates understanding of what comes next in their daily routines (e.g., goes to get shoes after breakfast because the group always goes outside at this time)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Talk to families about the rhythms of their caregiving routines, in order to reaffirm children’s sense of what comes next
• Play back-and-forth games with children
  • Rolling balls
  • Swinging
  • Handing objects back and forth
• Use vocabulary related to patterns: “my turn” and “your turn”

15–24 months – See this age across all domains Toddlers

What educators might observe

• Anticipates and follows familiar sequences of events (e.g., washes hands, sits at the lunch table)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Read books that involve a simple sequence of events encompassing breakfast, lunch, dinner, or morning, noon and night, such as The Big Red Barn , by Margaret Wise Brown
• Sing repetitive songs, read repetitive stories, and recite nursery rhymes with child
  • I Went Walking , by Sue Williams
  • “The Wheels on the Bus”
  • “Where is Thumbkin?”
  • “Los Pollitos Dicen”

24–36 months – See this age across all domains Toddlers

What educators might observe

• Calls a striped shirt with no repeating unit a “pattern”
• Copies simple repeating patterns (e.g., if the educator squats then stands repeatedly, the child continues this motion)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Look for patterns in the natural and built environment with the child
• Encourage the child to help set the table at mealtimes
• Engage children in cooking activities where patterns are reinforced (e.g., when taking turns mixing, chant, “Stir, stir, stir, pass! Stir, stir, stir, pass!)

3-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe

• Recognizes patterns in their environment (e.g., looks at a striped scarf and says, “It’s a pattern.”)
• Plays with patterns in language (e.g., sings, “La di dee, la dee da, la dee di.”)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Create simple patterns with music; play the drums and dance with children
• Encourage children to point out patterns in the environment
• Engage children in patterns of movement

4-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe

• Describes simple AB patterns (e.g., when the teacher claps then stomps, child names whether to clap or stomp next)
• Extends visual patterns; continues building a line of blocks that an older child has begun (e.g., triangle, triangle, square, triangle, triangle, square)
• Identifies repeating patterns in numbers ( “10, 20, and 30 all end in 0.”)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Invite children to join you in creating a pattern of music using simple instruments such as a tambourine and a triangle
• Ask children to notice patterns in the world, such as in seasons or daily schedules
• Provide materials such as pattern blocks and color tiles that suggest creating AB patterns
• Use songs and games to teach patterns:
  • Red Light, Green Light
  • Duck, Duck, Goose
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

5-year-olds – See this age across all domains Preschool

What educators might observe

• Creates and identifies simple repeating patterns (e.g., draws a pattern of hearts and stars around the edge of their picture)
• Creates and extends simple growing patterns (e.g., stacks one, then two, then three blocks to make a staircase)
• Explains growing patterns such as the pattern of “plus one” in addition (“If I add one, I get the next number.”)
• Describes a “jump, jump, clap” movement as two of something then one of something
• Pays attention to the linguistic patterns in the names of numbers, “Four, forty, and four hundred all sound like four!”

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Provide materials such as wooden cubes to build a staircase to model a “plus one” pattern
• Create ABC patterns together using clapping, tapping, and patting on the body; ask children to follow your pattern and then allow them to lead, with you following their pattern
• Sing songs with patterns, such as “Everyone Comes from a Different Place”

6-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe

• Identifies the smallest unit of a pattern
• Skip counts by tens, fives, and twos
• Explains the rule for a number pattern. For example, 5, 10, 15, 20 is the “plus five” number pattern
• Looks for and explains patterns in a number chart
• Understands the commutative principle of addition (2+3 = 5, 3+2 = 5)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Continue to notice patterns in the world on numbered streets and avenues or windows on buildings
• Model addition with materials to ground math ideas in concrete experience; use two colors of tiles to show the commutative property of addition (two green and three red is five tiles; three green and two red is still five tiles)
• Invite children to make patterns while stringing with small beads or weaving

7-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe

• Skip counts by hundreds, tens, fives, twos
• Identifies the rule needed to extend a pattern or identify a missing number in a pattern (2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17)
• Tells time to the nearest five minutes on different types of clocks

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Use materials such as pattern blocks to build growth patterns and describe them (“One hexagon has six sides. How many sides on two hexagons? On three hexagons?”)
• Invite children to observe, copy, and create patterns that grow; for example, make a square out of four cubes, make the square grow to nine cubes, then 16, and describe the pattern with numbers

8-year-olds – See this age across all domains Early elementary

What educators might observe

• Skip counts by hundreds, tens, sixes, fives, fours, and twos
• Is able to detect an error in a number pattern
• Explains mathematical patterns using the properties of operations
• Generalizes the properties of multiplication: (a X 1 = a) (a X b = bXa)

Ways educators might support the child's development

• Create AABBA patterns for classmates to complete and/or find the errors
• Practice looking at an analog clock, describing the number correspondences
• Give children a sense of time (Time sitting in silence for a minute, then do something repetitive such as snapping fingers or drawing stars for a minute, two minutes, or five minutes.)