By Leslie Manlapig of Pink Stripey Socks
Mother’s Day is just around the corner and it’s always super fun for kids to give handmade gifts. Looking for an easy way to infuse math into your crafting sessions? Here’s a craft that doubles as a fun math learning opportunity! Kids will love making and giving these colorful pattern bracelets and necklaces.
Materials
- beads
- pipe cleaners
- string
- clear tape
Directions
Presort your beads to help children easily find colors. This was really helpful when I did the activity with my son. The neat arrangement made the activity seem really special. Also, he concentrated on making patterns instead of getting bogged down searching for the right colors.
To help beads stay on, place clear pieces of tape to the end of the strings and bend the bottom of the pipe cleaners into the shape of an L. Then, have fun making pattern bracelets and necklaces together!
My son and I worked together on this activity. I explained to him that we were making repeating patterns together, which meant that a sequence of colors needed to repeat. He made some ABABAB and ABCABCABC bracelets by himself. Then, we created ABCDABCDABCD and ABBABBABB patterns together. You’ll notice that he also made a necklace with only purple beads. We talked together about how that sequence was a pattern because he repeated the color purple.
As you can see, we only explored repeating patterns. If you have older children, you could try making a simple growing pattern by adding a new color to each iteration. (For example, blue- blue green- blue green pink – blue green pink purple- blue green pink purple yellow…and so on) When you’re done, twist the pipe cleaner ends together and trim off any loose bits. To make the necklaces, tie the strings together.
Hope you have fun making this colorful pattern jewelry!
