Find the next shape in a pattern

key notes:

✨ Key Points:

What is a Shape Pattern?

  • A shape pattern is a sequence of shapes that repeats or grows in a certain order.
  • Example: 🔵🔴🔵🔴🔵 (circle, square, circle, square, …)

How to Find the Next Shape:

  • Look carefully at the order of shapes.
  • Check if the shapes are repeating or growing.
  • Follow the same rule to find the next shape.

Types of Shape Patterns:

Repeating Pattern: The same sequence repeats.

  • Example: ▲⚫▲⚫▲⚫ … (next shape = ▲)

Growing Pattern: Shapes increase or change each step.

  • Example: 🔺, 🔺🔺, 🔺🔺🔺 … (next = 🔺🔺🔺🔺)

Clues to Watch For:

  • Same shapes in order (circle → square → circle → square).
  • Shapes may change in size (small → big → small → big).
  • Shapes may change in color (red → blue → red → blue).
📝 Examples:

Pattern: ⭐ 🔺 ⭐ 🔺 ⭐ …

  • Next shape = 🔺

Pattern: 🔵 🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 …

  • Next shape = 🔵🔵🔵🔵

Pattern: 🟩 🔺 🟩 🔺 🟩 …

  • Next shape = 🔺
🎯 Practice Activity:

Draw your own shape pattern and ask a friend to guess the next shape.

Find the next shape:

  • 🔴🔵🔴🔵🔴 → _______
  • 🔺 🔺🔺 🔺🔺🔺 → _______
  • ⚫ ⚫⚫ ⚫⚫⚫ ⚫⚫⚫⚫ → _______

1. Terms:

The objects or elements that form a pattern are called its terms.

For example: in the pattern above 👆, the terms are orange stars and green circles.

2. The Core

The part of a repeating pattern, that stays the same and repeats itself, is called its core.

In our example above, the core is made up of 2 stars followed by 3 green circles:

Finding the Core of a Repeating Pattern:

Let’s look at an example pattern:

Find the core of this pattern. 

To find the core of a repeating pattern, look for the smallest set of terms that repeat themselves.

This is part of the core.👆

Let’s look at an example pattern:

Find the core of this pattern. 

To find the core of a repeating pattern, look for the smallest set of terms that repeat themselves.

This is part of the core.👆

Learn with an example

What shape comes next?

It’s easy to predict what comes next.

The Core of this pattern is

The next shape is

The pattern is:

What shape comes next?

The pattern starts with these two shapes:

The pattern repeats these shapes over and over.

Let’s practice!