Image of the Week: Playground Patterning

Playground Patterning

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, it is spring! Perhaps you feel like we do and have an intense urge to get outside and enjoy it, to breath in the fresh air and feel the sunshine on your faces. We say, do it and take your kids with you!

And while you’re out there, we suggest that you take advantage of your school’s playground or yard to look for patterns. Playground equipment, like swings and climbing structures, are packed full of patterns. Patterns in sequences, in shapes, and in symmetry. Take, for example, this week’s image, an aerial shot of an outdoor basketball court. Before you go outside, ask your student, What patterns do you see?

Students might see the vertical line of symmetry painted down the center or notice the unmarked line of horizontal symmetry. Each of these comes with repeated, mirrored shapes and lines. Students might notice the pattern of repeated, bisected circles, or use their basketball knowledge to name parts that repeat, like the hoops and the keys. Notice the consistent yellow border, in which the court is nestled, making a color pattern left-to-right or top-to-bottom of yellow-red-yellow. The basketball court has a structure and looking for patterns is one way we can analyze and reveal that structure.

So, take your students outside. Look at the playground, at the basketball or other sports courts, at the pathways, at the painted asphalt. Look at where there are benches or fences and where there is grass. What patterns do you see? What a beautiful way to spend a spring day.

And we invite you to follow us on Twitter! Tweet us the fascinating ideas you students have about our activities or how you’re trying these activities in your space. We can’t wait to hear from you!

To multiplicity, cheers!

Jen Munson and the multiplicity lab group