Printable Pattern Block Activities

My post the other day about snowflake math activities included a couple of things using pattern blocks, which are great manipulatives to have on hand for kids to play with in quiet times at home or in the classroom. There are tons of printables you can use to challenge kids to build different things or inspire them to come up with their own creations.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a great free collection of printable pattern block challenges, which shows what shapes to use and then asks kids to count how many of each shape they used. This is a good general collection that includes things like a giraffe, elephant, bicycle and bus. (Scroll all the way down on the page to find the link to the download.)

The printables from Preschool Mom help kids practice symmetry as they complete the image printed on half of the page. They also have some cute pattern block printables kids can use to make a single design or a repeating pattern.

If you’re looking for more winter themed projects, grab these mats from Ms. Moran’s Kindergarten, which include a hat, mitten, penguin and more.

Life Over C’s has a collection of ocean animal pattern block pages including a fish, octopus, whale and stingray. Each page also includes a place for kids to mark which image of the animal is different, and to mark out which shapes they used to make the animal.

You can find more animal mats in a free sampler from Pocket of Preschool’s Teachers Pay Teachers page. This one focuses on zoo animals and includes things like a gorilla, lion and elephant.

If you want to collect information from any pattern block sheet you might use, grab the download from This Reading Mama. It has pages for kids to chart how many of each kind of piece they use in a project, and to compare the use of different shapes across different mats.

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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