It’s important to me that my kids understand math. However, I am not a proponent of the “drill and kill” teaching philosophy. Maybe it is effective, but personally, I think it’s unnecessary. That’s why I created my own math curriculum for my kids. You can find my full First Grade Minimalist Math curriculum here. As a way to make learning math more fun, I used those same problems and turned them into math cards. This specific set features 36 pattern and sequence questions for first grade.
Since there are 36 weeks in a school year, you could give your child one of these cards per week. However, my preferred way to use these cards is to play games over the summer. This allows us to review what my kids have learned the previous school year before we dive into a new year. Kids can write directly on the cards using a dry erase marker. When we are playing games, sometimes they just tell me the answer verbally. Sometimes if there is a lot of work required, especially for the older grades, they will show their work on a whiteboard or piece of paper.
There are 10 sets of cards for each grade level covering 10 distinct areas of mathematics. I have made these cards all the way through 7th grade, so my goal is to one day get them all on this blog. However, since I am still currently homeschooling my 4 children, it may take a bit!
This set specifically focuses on patterns and sequences. The cards get progressively harder. The year begins with patterns featuring alternating shapes. Then it moves on to more complicated patterns featuring shapes. A few weeks into the school year, we switch to filling in the blanks using numbers which requires the child to think about numbers that come before and numbers that come after. Towards the end of the year, the cards move on to skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 100’s.
I have not currently gotten around to making an answer key specifically for these cards. I haven’t decided yet if this is something I would like to do in the future. However, these are the exact same questions that I use in my first-grade curriculum. If you download the answer key to the first grade curriculum and math the card number in the lower right corner to the week number on the curriculum, you can find the answer if you get stuck!
First Grade Patterns and Sequences Cards
Recommended Age Range: First Grade
Time Required: about 1-5 minutes per week
Difficulty: starts off fairly easy and gets harder as weeks progress
Cost: Free printable
Materials
paper
Instructions
Print out the cards and cut them out. You can laminate them if desired to make them last longer. You can use them as part of a game to motivate your child to complete it or simply sit down with your child and them if they need it!
Free Printable
First Grade Math Review Cards – Patterns and Sequences
Click here for all the Minimalist Math curricula available for different grade levels.
Related Links
Math Activities for Kids
Minimalist Math Curriculum Methodology
Learning Activities for Kids
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