Pattern Animals & Pattern Blocks

For those of you who've been to my blog before, you may already know we're using My Father's World, first grade. Part of the curriculum includes the supplemental activities provided by Learning Resources Pattern Animal book and pattern blocks. My kids go back and forth between loving the activities as outlined in this book and loving only their self-made games using the blocks. Either way, it's cool to watch!

The Pattern Animal book comes bound like any workbook, but I tore the darn thing apart and slipped the pages into page protectors, then threw the whole thing into a binder. Ahh... much better.

This book really only works this way... you can't place the pattern blocks on a page that's bound inside a book... it just doesn't work. Plus, sheet protectors... well, they protect the sheets! You could also laminate these to make them more durable and reusable.

The book also includes worksheets, which I've placed inside the binder.
The blocks that I bought for this book are also made by Learning Resources, so they were made to work with the pages within the animal patterns book, however there are many many other styles of geometric blocks... what they call tangrams, which look to me to be the same type of thing.

So, are these blocks just about playing? No, they're actually brain builders too! The book includes counting, sorting, graphing, sequencing, estimating, and symmetry exercises and is recommended for grades 1-3. My 5 year old would technically be pre-K and she's loving the blocks too. So don't feel constrained by the age recommendations... so long as they've passed the stage of putting toys in their mouths, it's all good.


Here's one of our pattern animal activity sessions. My kids usually do 2 or 3 animals before we put everything away and we choose one worksheet from the book to make the learning experience a bit richer... and recordable! lol