Repeating Patterns and Their Rule

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Design Your Own in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Look at this row of blocks: red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. Now hands up: what colour do you think the tenth block would be, without laying all ten of them out one by one? Have a think about how you could be sure.

Teacher Notes

Lay out (or display) a red-blue-red-blue strip of six pattern blocks as pupils settle. Take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Don't confirm the answer yet — the method to be certain is what Watch and Notice will build. Give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

A two-shape unit

Watch this pattern: triangle, square, triangle, square. The part that keeps coming back is triangle, square. That repeating part is called the unit, and here it is two shapes long. Notice how every second shape is a square.

A three-shape unit

Now watch a longer one: red, red, blue, red, red, blue, red, red, blue. The repeating unit is red, red, blue, which is three shapes long. Look hard at the blue ones, where do they keep landing?

Skipping ahead in threes

The blue ones land on the third shape, the sixth shape, the ninth shape, and so on. Those are the numbers we say when we count in threes. So to find the ninth shape we do not have to lay out nine blocks. We can count along in threes, three, six, nine, and land straight on blue. The unit length is the number we count in to skip ahead.

Teacher Notes

Walk each example aloud, one at a time, using the display snapshots.

Two-shape unit — ring the first triangle-square pair on the board with your finger; say this is the unit, and it keeps coming back. Ask the class to call out the eighth shape and explain how the unit helped.
Three-shape unit — point to the third, sixth and ninth shapes and say every third shape is blue. This is the key insight the whole lesson rests on, so do not move past it until the class can say it back to you.
Skipping ahead — with your finger, count along the row in threes (three, six, nine) and land on a blue square each time. Make the point that counting in threes is faster than laying out every block, and that the unit length is the times-table you count in.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Today we explore patterns together on the board. We will start a repeating unit, then continue it for two more full repeats, and ring the unit so everyone can see the part that keeps coming back. After each one, we'll say which shape comes next and why.

Continue the repeating pattern

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Start a unit on the pattern-blocks board (e.g. circle, square, triangle), then call an individual pupil up to add two more full repeats and ring the unit. Have the class agree the next shape before the pupil places it. Rotate four pupils across units of length two and three. Watch for the common slip of ringing too many or too few shapes as the unit, that is the moment to revoice where does the pattern start to repeat?

+15 XP

4 - Design Your Own in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, design your own repeating pattern with a unit of three shapes. Draw two full repeats of your pattern, then underline the repeating part so anyone reading your copy can spot the unit at a glance.

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing for two things: the unit is exactly three shapes, and the underline sits under one full unit (not the whole row). No marking — this is whole-class copybook practice, not assessment. If a pupil's pattern doesn't actually repeat, point at where it should start again rather than correcting it for them.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Today we work through these patterns together, one at a time:

First, a pattern that goes star, moon, star, moon. Name the sixth shape.
Next, a pattern that goes red, blue, green. Name the ninth shape.
Then a longer jump. A pattern that goes circle, triangle, star. We want the twentieth shape. We count along in threes, three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, which lands on star, then step on: nineteen is circle, twenty is triangle. So the twentieth shape is triangle.

Tip

The longer positions are where the unit really earns its keep, so we'll use it to skip ahead rather than count every shape.

Name the shape at the position

Teacher Notes

This round is the practice bank — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

For each target, ask the class first: how does knowing the unit length help us skip ahead? For the twentieth shape of a three-shape unit, model counting in threes on the board (three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen) and then stepping the last two on, so pupils see they don't need to lay out twenty shapes. The on-screen Check confirms each one — use the ✓ as part of your narration (yes, that's it).

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 10 · Algebra: Patterns, Rules and Number Sentences Mixed

Lesson 109 · Repeating Patterns and Their Rule

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Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

A two-shape unit

A three-shape unit

Skipping ahead in threes

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Continue the repeating pattern

4 - Design Your Own in Your Copy ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Name the shape at the position

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