Spring Patterning Cards +5 Ways to Use Them

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Searching for a quick math activity to add to your preschool math center this spring? These flower pattern cards will be a great addition to your spring preschool lesson plans. The best thing about this printable is the five different math activities that can be done with it!

***This post includes a FREE printable, so be sure to grab it from the end of the post.***

Free Printable Preschool Math Activities for Spring

Grab your free spring patterning cards from the end of this post.

I can’t wait for spring! All the sunshine and flowers just make me giddy!

I mean, what’s not to love about the first crocuses pushing their way through the thawing winter ground? I love it when they come up through a late winter snow. They are such a welcome pop of color in what otherwise feels dark and gloomy.

And flowers are so iconic of springtime, aren’t they?

I didn’t meet my first crocus until I was in grad school, but daffodils and tulips are practically a worldwide signifier that spring really is on the way!

And I kinda’ feel the same way about these flower patterning cards for spring. I’m ready to teach a spring preschool theme, and these spring patterning activities are just the thing to add to my lesson plans. These patterning cards will teach preschoolers ABAB patterns as well as more complex ABC patterns.

These spring patterning cards are just like our fall patterning cards, so be sure to check them out too!

Get 40 different flower pattern cards.

FAQ About Teaching a Spring Theme in Preschool

What do you teach preschoolers in the spring?

A spring preschool theme is one of those that can be a big umbrella for all sorts of different topics. In a preschool spring theme you can teach preschoolers about signs of spring, clothing we wear in the spring, plant life cycles, insects and their life cycles, light and rainbows, rain and clouds, gardening, and of course, all things flower related.

What are good activities for a preschool spring theme?

A well-rounded spring theme for preschoolers is always going to include learning in various ways. Be sure to include gross motor and fine motor activities, spring art and sensory activities, spring invitations to play, as well as all your favorite spring alphabet and number activities.

What are some spring themes for preschoolers?

Like I said before, a spring preschool theme is a great umbrella for so many other learning topics. Consider some of these more creative–and less traditional–spring themes for preschoolers: Japanese cherry blossoms, spring break activities, Easter and parades, Victoria Day, April showers and May flowers, baby animals, groundhogs, and Memorial Day.

Don’t Forget Spring Picture Books

Books are such a great way to travel through spring in the classroom. Here are some of the books from my own preschool classroom library. These are my favorite books I’ve added to a spring book list for you.

5 Preschool Math Activities for Spring

Having a printable that will do multiple jobs is invaluable as a teacher or parent of preschoolers. While this is a spring patterning activity, I’ll also share with you four additional ways to use this printable, beyond the straight-forward patterning work.

Materials

  • Free Flower Pattern Cards (found at the end of this post)
  • Colorful Math Manipulatives (optional)

Turn Any Activity into a Spring Themed Activity

With just a few simple manipulatives, you can turn practically any preschool activity into a spring activity. Here are some of the manipulatives I have in my spring preschool box.

Setting Up Your Preschool Math Activities

After printing and prepping the printable, arrange the pattern cards on a tray or work surface. Set the flower pictures next to the cards either in a bowl, on the tray, or just scattered about the work area.

However you arrange the cards just make sure the students can see the pattern cards and picture cards. Then invite them to have some springtime math fun with you!

These spring pattern cards feature both AB and ABC patterns.

Flower Pattern Cards Activity

Allow your child to look at the cards and familiarize themselves with the pictures on them. They might name the colors or otherwise describe the flowers they see on the cards.

Once they’re ready to do the activity, invite them to select a pattern card from the tray. Have them “read” the pattern aloud by pointing to each picture in order…thus hearing the pattern, too.

” blue flower, green flower, blue flower, green flower…

Then have your preschooler look through the picture cards to find the flower that will complete the pattern.

Once they’ve found the correct flower picture card, have them cover the question mark on the patterning card to complete the flower pattern.

Then do it again with another flower pattern card.

These patterning cards offer a lot of variety in a single pattern type.

A More Challenging Flower Pattern Cards Activity

One way to make this spring patterning activity more challenging for your preschoolers is to encourage them to continue the pattern off the card. Note: This will require you to print off more picture cards.

Having your preschooler continue the pattern off the card gives them more practice with visual discrimination skills, as well as patterning and sorting skills.

This patterning extension activity is just one of many that I included in my Positions and Patterns Lesson Plans. You can grab my Sorting Lesson Plans here, too!

And don’t forget that this set comes with ABC pattern cards, too. This pattern type is a little more challenging and a good option for preschoolers who have already mastered AB patterns.

Spring patterning activities also help develop visual discrimination skills.

To Simplify Flower Pattern Cards Activity

Some preschoolers–especially younger ones–struggle with the concept of patterning. To make this activity easier, have them match up the flower picture cards under the pattern cards, thus repeating the pattern underneath. Then have them fill in the remaining places in the pattern. Again, you will need to print off extra flower cards for this.

This provides your preschooler with lots of practice in sorting and visual discrimination skills. Now they also have two patterns to read aloud, which means that they can hear (and play with) the pattern twice.

Have young preschoolers practice copying patterns, too.

More Spring Math Activities Using These Cards

While you can always use these cards just for patterning, it’s always awesome when you can get more than one activity out of a printable. Here are two more activities to do with them.

Patterning Practice That Transfers

It’s important for preschoolers to understand that the concept of patterning is something that repeats itself. It’s A, B, A, B…and not always red flower, purple flower, red flower…

One way to teach this to preschoolers is by using math manipulatives and having them assign something like a color to each picture and make the pattern underneath the pattern card.

Then, a pattern like

red flower, yellow flower, red flower…

is also understood as

red, yellow, red, yellow, red…

This helps preschoolers transfer the knowledge of an AB pattern from one scenario to another.

Use Flower Patterning Cards for Sorting

Patterning leads so nicely into sorting; and it should, since they both fall under the same math domain of algebra.

This set of flower patterning cards is so beautiful that they’re fun to use in many different preschool math activities for spring.

You can sort them into a variety of categories, but my all-time favorite way to use the cards for sorting is to invite my preschoolers to sort them into categories they define themselves. I’m always surprised by their creativity.

The important thing here is when your preschooler sorts the cards any way she chooses, that she is allowed and encouraged to explain her sorting. This helps develop oral language skills as well as mathematical critical thinking skills.

Get Your Free Flower Patterning Cards Here

Think these patterning cards are something you want to add to your preschool math center or small group preschool math activities? You can grab your own copy by clicking the image below.

But keep reading for even more spring theme printables and more preschool math activities for spring!

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