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Unit 1: Patterns and Classifications

Unit 1 is typically an eight-week unit taught in September and October.

Unit Overview

In this unit, students extend their understanding about directional and positional words. This understanding helps students make sense of location and spatial relationships in their immediate environment. Students in the Pre-Kindergarten program were introduced to positional words, such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom inside, outside, in front of, and behind. This understanding is foundational for later work with geometry. Students also sort and classify objects in this unit. Prekindergarten students sorted by a given attribute while kindergarten students sort a set of objects and explain the sorting rule.
Sorting and classifying helps students arrange objects in an organized way, which is the beginning of graphical representation. Prior to kindergarten, students’ experiences with data analysis were teacher-guided. In kindergarten, students begin to ask questions to generate data, and they work as a group to collect and organize this information. These experiences develop students’ abilities to work more independently in Grade 1 to organize, display, and interpret data results.
In this unit, students strengthen their understanding of patterns and relationships, which develops thinking about classification and reasoning, and builds the foundation for algebraic thinking. In Pre-Kindergarten, students’ work focused on recognizing and duplicating simple patterns. Kindergarten students are expected to identify, describe, copy, extend, and construct simple patterns using a variety of concrete objects. These experiences prepare students for translating patterns into other forms (e.g., actions, words, and objects) in Grade 1.

Parent Newsletters

Parent Newsletters for Kindergarten
Informative documents with fun activities and tips to help your child learn mathematics.

Content Map

Content map for Kindergarten Unit 1 (PDF)

Web Resources

Find learning activities and games sorted by content strand on our resource page.  

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