Tweezers Pattern Making Game

Play this tweezers pattern-making game to practice sequencing and patterns with your preschool child. Gameplay helps develop and improve fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, counting skills, and inferencing number skills. Pattern play even prepares children for Algebra later in life.

Pattern Games are so valuable for young children because they need to learn how to store and organize information with patterns for the first time. While sequencing is old-hat for us, it is a somewhat advanced skill for young children. As they experience everything about the world for the first time in the first five years of life, new skills are developing at a crazy rate.

child playing a pattern making game with tweezers and pom moms.

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Benefits of Pattern Making Games

Learning how to recognize patterns is an important mathematical skill for preschool and early elementary children. As your child gets comfortable working with similar patterns, they can work on problems with more complexity. Pattern and Sequence work will help children organize information, problem solve and use thinking skills. It will also help build mathematical pathways in the brain for future learning. Pattern recognition is also important for the future study of music.

How Pattern Making Games Work

When your child plays a pattern-making game, they will be given a beginning sequence with just enough information to figure out the solution. Students need to identify the next figure in the pattern. As the games get more complicated, they will be asked to identify a series of next figures in the pattern or fill in the blanks. These games require the student to study the information they have and make inferences from that information to arrive at a solution.

child playing pattern games with ice cube tray and tweezers.

Storing and Re-Using Homemade Games

Once you’ve purchased and gathered all of the supplies for this game, you have a handy learning activity to use over and over. Place all of the supplies in a plastic storage box or large ziplock bag and keep it with other homemade games.

Rotate through the games and have your children play for fifteen minutes per day as part of their normal routine. Rotating activities will keep this part of the day new and interesting, and having a handful of activities for fine motor skills will make a huge difference even in just a month’s time.

These kinds of activities are perfect to give you fifteen or twenty minutes of peace as you try to get dinner ready in the evenings. Give everyone a bagged activity to work on around the table as you cook.

A Few Other Free Pattern Games to Try

Math Patterns Using Apple Prints from Buggy and Buddy. Students get to copy patterns using stamps and ink, which is very fun.
Pattern Activities from Gift of Curiosity. A variety of different sequencing activities so you can pick the ones you think will work with your child.
Five Ways to Practice Patterning Outside from Bambini Travel. Use nature to teach patterning skills.

Pattern Making Games to Purchase

Counting Bear Pattern Cards from Learning Resources. These adorable bears have been a classroom favorite for years.
Bead Sequencing Set from Melissa and Doug
Sequence for Kids. One of the original pattern-making games, in a kid’s version.
Bead Sequencing Montessori Set. These bead pattern games also help children get fine motor skills work.
Sequence. Some kids pick up on this really fast and don’t need the kid’s version for very long.

Super-Cute Tweezers for Kids

Plastic Tweezers. These bright, colorful tweezers from Learning Resources are sized perfectly for little hands.
Gator Grabbers are also from Learning Resources and are a little chunkier. Bonus: these look like little alligators.
Flat Tweezers from EdXCation look a little easier to hold and manipulate to keep ahold of different items.
Little Food Tongs with Silicone Hands on the ends are a fun alternative to tweezers.

Materials for the Tweezers Pattern Making Game

Materials for the game. Tweezers. Ice Cube Tray. Pom Poms.

Instructions for the Pattern Making Game

Pour some pom poms into your bowl.
Ask your child to use the tweezers to move the pom poms from the bowl into the ice cube tray/egg carton.
Ask your child if they can make any patterns with their pom-poms. For beginner learners start the pattern off and ask them to finish it.

You may also enjoy this fine motor skills shapes activity with your preschooler.