Find the same rule

💡 How it plays and why it helps

Ask an adult what a pattern is made of and the answer is usually shapes. Find the same rule shows a Pre-K child that it is made of order. At the top sits a row such as blue square, yellow triangle, blue square, yellow triangle. Below, four rows use other shapes, and your child taps the one that follows the same rule. The instruction is read aloud, a round has five puzzles, and every answer is checked and explained.

Seeing that heart, diamond, heart, diamond and square, triangle, square, triangle are the same pattern is an early step toward abstraction: the rule survives when the pieces change. The hint says it plainly. Don't check whether the shapes are the same; look at their order.

The wrong rows are close. One might read heart, heart, diamond, heart, heart, diamond, with both shapes present but bunched in twos. Read a row aloud together and clap on each shape. Ask, "Does it sound like the top row?" Then name the work: "You listened for the rule, not the colors."