Teaching Patterns: Pancakes and Fruit Skewers
These pancakes and fruit skewers are a delicious way for kids to learn about patterns! This activity also develops fine motor skills and practical life skills.
My kids love pancakes and fruit so I thought this would be a fun treat for lunch one day. I knew Evan would want to help me make them so I decided to use it as an opportunity to teach him more about patterns. At the same time, I thought it would be excellent for his fine motor development. Since that is a big focus for me right now, I was super happy that we could integrate that as well.
Materials Needed:
Mini pancakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Whipped cream *optional
Activity Prep:
1. Cut up all the fruit. I cut the strawberries into medallions, but you could do it any way you like.
2. Cook the pancakes.
3. Lay out all of the ingredients on the counter.
Activity Details:
Explain to your child that you will be making patterns with pancakes and fruit. I started a pattern on one of the skewers by adding a strawberry, a blueberry and then a pancake. I told him that was our pattern and we needed to repeat it again. Then I asked him which item we should add next. He decided on strawberry. Then I asked him what we should add next. He said blueberry. This continued until we repeated the pattern 3 times.
Then I started another skewer. This time I asked him to continue the pattern all by himself. He totally caught on and was able to continue the pattern. From then on, I let him make his own patterns on the remaining skewers.
To say he enjoyed this activity would be an understatement! He was so impressed with himself and very excited about being in charge of making lunch for the whole family. He really took ownership of the meal and was proud to serve it to us. The pancakes and fruit skewers were delicious too!
Here are some related posts I think you will enjoy!
Muffin Man Baking and Sequencing Activity