Keeping preschoolers on task and engaged during the month of December can be hard than it seems without the right activities. I tend to keep things simple throughout the school year in my classroom, but think it’s the only way to go when holidays are coming up! This is why my prechoolers and I love our Christmas bow patterns math activity. It is a hands-on way to introduce and practice patterning skills in the preschool classroom!

Christmas Bow Patterns

You can see from the photos that the set up for the Christmas bow patterns activity is super simple! The only real supply you may need is the package of bows. I love the mini bows and picked the ones we used at the dollar store.

To create the pattern mat for the table, I cut strips of white paper from a piece of easel paper. This allows the work area to be a little larger than just a piece of paper. Construction paper would work too.

On each strip of paper, I used crayons to make circle dots down the paper in a AB, ABB, or ABC pattern.

You could absolutely make this more sophisticated, but you don’t really need to. If could have found my BINGO dotters, I would have just used them to make the green and red dots to save even more time, but I must have not put them back in their actual spot the last time we used them.

Patterning in preschool is all about the song-like rhythm that the pattern is said in as it is created and extended.

Preschoolers need to hear the pattern as they put the colored Christmas bow down on the dots. Red, green. Red, green. Red, green.

Place the Christmas bows down on the dots to make the pattern. Cover each dot and fill in the rest of the pattern.

Preschoolers who are just beginning to learn to pattern will need colored circle dots along with entire strip of paper. When the skill of matching colored bows and circles while making the pattern has been mastered, move on to leaving the end of the pattern blank. This will allow the preschoolers to continue and extend the pattern on their own.

Using a black crayon, create empty circles down the strip of paper for preschoolers to create their own pattern.

One of the nice things about more homemade hands-on learning activities like the Christmas bow pattern activity is that you are able to adapt them to best fit the learning levels in your classroom.

Try our other simple, hands-on Christmas activities like our ribbon cutting tray and our Christmas tree magnetic ornaments that preschoolers love!