Practice Early Math with Patterned Paper Chains

Decorate your home with this lovely and easy-to-make art project! Craft a colorful patterned chain out of construction paper and tape. It's fun for your child, but will also help develop his early math skills. In kindergarten, patterning is a big part of the math curriculum. This activity lets your child create an imaginative prop or house decoration by alternating two colors in a repetitive pattern. Expose your preschooler to this basic math skill early or do it with your kindergartner to help her master her patterning skills!

What You Need:

• 2 colors of construction paper
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Glue, tape, or a stapler

What to Do:

1. Invite your child to pick two different colors of construction paper.
2. Cut the construction paper into ten to fifteen 1"x 4" strips.
3. Help your child overlap the ends of one strip and tape them together so it forms a circle.
4. Take a different colored strip and do the same, only this time loop the ends through the hole of the last one so they are linked like a chain. Tape the ends.
5. Continue the steps, alternating colors until all the strips have been used. Now you have a colorful chain to hang from the wall or use in imaginative play!
6. Extend this activity as your child learns more about patterns. Instead of two colors, add in three or four. Try different color patterns, such as red, blue, green or red, blue, blue, red. You could also pick colors based on the season: orange and brown for Fall, blue and white for Winter, yellow and orange for Summer, and pink and green for Spring. You can do the same for holidays: red and white for Christmas, pink and red for Valentine's Day, orange and black for Halloween, and so on to add some festive decorations to your home.