For each seasonal “time” in our year, I have my kids complete a pattern to display.  These go along with the Pattern Block Graph I created (under the Math tab and in the PDF files).  I have an apple, pumpkin, (the turkey is in progress!) scarecrow (on the PDF page) ,a snowman, snowflake, heart, shamrock, and I hope to make an egg or bunny, and get the flower posted soon too!

Basically, what I do with these is this: When I had 1/2 day, the kids would glue the pattern block shapes on one day and complete the graph the second day.  Now with Full Day, I think we could get them totally done in about 1 hour–they take a lot longer than you think! 🙂  The kids complete the shape and then count and graph the number of each shape that they used.  Sometimes, I only put out a few shapes, and leave the kdis to problem solve (What can we do if we don’t have any trapezoids?), so that each graph will turn out a little differently! Each table might also get different shapes and some of my more advanced children will notice and go and borrow from another table! 🙂

I like these because even though it looks like a “crafty project”, I can justify my students matching shapes, problem solving, and graphing.

I use those vegetable party trays to put the shapes on the tables.  Each little section gets its own shape.  I keep pattern block shapes in the trays all year long.  I get the veggie trays at the Dollar Tree! 🙂  I purchased a class set and we use them all the time for sorting and for when we have special create a character (gingerbread man) felt store days—much more on that later! 🙂

I am posting them here and will convert them to PDF and have them there under the letter P.

Kristen 🙂