Patterns repeat — Design, 4–6 years
Repeating colours, shapes or marks can make a design easy to recognise and pleasing to look at. Children meet patterns in clothes, tiles, fences and pictures.
A pattern has a repeat
A pattern is made when something happens again in the same order. Red-blue-red-blue is a pattern, and so is circle-square-circle-square; the part that repeats is its little rule.
Why designers repeat
Repeating a small set of choices helps people notice order without studying every part. Long ago, people used repeated marks on cloth, pots and buildings to decorate them and show where they belonged.
Making a border pattern
Choose two colours, yellow and green. Make the repeating part yellow-green, then copy it four times: yellow-green, yellow-green, yellow-green, yellow-green. Check that no pair has changed places.
Almost a pattern
A child may continue the colours correctly but change the order halfway through. That is an easy mistake because each pair still looks neat; a true repeat keeps the same small part in the same order from start to finish.
Patterns in everyday design
Tiles, wrapping paper and fabric often use repeats because one small design can cover a large space. A person can make many matching parts without inventing a new picture each time.
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