What Comes Next? — The Toy Line-Up

You start a line of toys that follows a repeating pattern; your child reads it aloud, works out what comes next, and keeps the line going across the floor.

  1. Gather two kinds of small things with plenty of each — for example toy cars and wooden blocks, or forks and spoons.
  2. Lay out a line that repeats at least three times: car, block, car, block, car, block. Three full repeats matter — with fewer, there is not yet a pattern to see.
  3. Read it together, touching each item and chanting in rhythm: “car, block, car, block…” Let your voice trail off at the end and wait.
  4. Ask, “What comes next? How do you know?” Your child adds the next item, then keeps going until the line reaches the sofa, the door, or the end of the rug.
  5. Start a new line with three kinds of things (car, block, spoon, car, block, spoon…) and extend that one too.
  6. Swap roles: your child starts a line and you extend it — occasionally getting it wrong so they can catch you.

Variation: play Pattern Doctor — while your child closes their eyes, remove one item from the middle of the line (leave the gap) or swap two items. They find what is “broken” and repair it.

Requirements

  • Space: A clear strip of floor or a long table, about 1–2 meters
  • Surface: Floor, rug, or table
  • Materials: 10–15 each of two or three kinds of small objects (toy cars, blocks, cutlery, bottle caps, crayons, clothes pegs)
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can take turns adding to the line
  • Supervision: Light — the adult starts the pattern and asks the questions

Rationale & Objective

Recognizing and extending a repeating pattern is the entry point to patterning, and patterning is a quiet powerhouse of early math. Longitudinal work by Rittle-Johnson and colleagues found that preschoolers’ repeating-pattern knowledge predicts later mathematics achievement over and above their counting skills. Head Start ELOF (Goal P-MATH 7) expects children approaching kindergarten to duplicate and extend simple patterns and to fill in missing elements, and the UK EYFS Development Matters guidance asks children to continue, copy, and create repeating patterns and to notice an error in one. Reading the line aloud in rhythm lets the ear help the eye, and asking “How do you know?” moves the child from guessing the next item to stating the rule — the beginning of algebraic thinking. Moving from AB to ABC stretches working memory, because a longer chunk has to be held in mind.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: adds items at random or simply repeats the last item; can chant along with an adult but cannot say what comes next alone
  • Developing: extends an AB line correctly for several items when it is read aloud first; ABC patterns drift back into AB; spots a missing item only with a hint
  • Proficient: extends AB and ABC lines independently for three or more repeats, explains the choice (“because it goes car, block, spoon”), and repairs a gap or a swap
  • Advanced: extends trickier units such as AAB or ABB, starts own lines for the adult, and catches the adult’s deliberate mistakes straight away

Safety Notes

  • Choose objects too large to be a choking hazard if younger siblings are nearby; pick up the line afterwards so nobody steps on small toys
  • If you use cutlery, stick to spoons and forks — no knives
  • Mistakes are normal — re-read the line together rather than saying “wrong,” so the child hears the pattern break for themselves
  • Stop while it is still fun; five to ten minutes is plenty
  • If a child approaching 6 cannot continue a simple two-item pattern even after plenty of playful practice, mention it to their teacher or pediatrician alongside any other learning concerns

Hints

  • Playfulness: make the line a traffic jam, a parade, or a queue for the toy ice-cream van — “Who is next in the queue?”
  • Sustain interest: change the materials every time (shoes, fruit, leaves, socks) and see how long a line the child can make — down the whole hallway?
  • Common mistake: showing only “car, block, car” and asking what comes next. Always lay out three full repeats before asking, and let the child read it aloud first
  • Limited space: use coins and buttons on a tray, or two colors of sticky notes along a windowsill
  • Cross-domain: chant the line to a beat (music and rhythm), count how many cars are in the finished line (number sense), and practice the words first, next, before, after (language)
  • Progression: AB → ABC → AAB and ABB → fixing a gap in the middle → child designs a line and “breaks” it for the adult to fix

Sources

  • Head Start ELOF — Goal P-MATH 7: child understands simple patterns (duplicates and extends patterns; fills in missing elements)
  • Rittle-Johnson, Fyfe, Hofer & Farran (2017), “Early Math Trajectories: Low-Income Children’s Mathematics Knowledge From Ages 4 to 11,” Child Development
  • UK EYFS — Development Matters (2021), Mathematics: continue, copy and create repeating patterns; notice and correct an error in a repeating pattern
  • Frye et al. (2013), Teaching Math to Young Children — IES/What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide, Recommendation 2
  • HighScope Key Developmental Indicator 38: Patterns
  • Clements & Sarama, Learning and Teaching Early Math: The Learning Trajectories Approach — patterns and structure trajectory