Free printable AB pattern worksheets
Six sheets, one pattern type each, in the order a child meets them: bird, fish (AB), a star and hexagon strip with one cell missing from the middle, circle, star, triangle (ABC), tree, tree, sun (AAB), moon, star, star (ABB), and cat, cat, dog, dog (AABB). Every sheet has the strip, an empty cell or two to fill, and a blank row to make the same pattern again. They are drawn with the book's tools and are in none of it.
US Letter · 6 pages · black and white · no signup
What is on the sheets
Print at actual size (100%), not "fit to page". The target sizes on these pages are chosen for a particular age of hand, and scaling shrinks them.
Using them well
Say it before you draw it
Bird, fish, bird, fish. Said aloud, the unit is audible before it is visible, and a child who can chant it can extend it.
AAB is the hard one
A child who flew through AB and ABC will often stall at tree, tree, sun. They have to stop alternating and find the unit. Expect it, and do not rescue it.
Use the blank row
The empty row under each strip is for the child's own copy of the pattern. Making it is a different skill from continuing it, and it is the one that transfers to blocks and claps.
Questions
What is an AB pattern?
A repeating pattern whose unit is two things: bird, fish, bird, fish. ABC has a three-item unit, AAB and ABB double one item, and AABB doubles both. The six sheets go in that order, with a fill-the-gap sheet second, because a gap in the middle cannot be answered by looking at the end.
What age are these pattern worksheets for?
Four to six. Nearly every four-year-old can extend the AB sheet. ABC and AAB are typical at five, and ABB and AABB at five or six.
Why are the pictures plain?
Because decorated shapes measurably hurt young children on patterning tasks compared with plain uniform ones. Every strip here is drawn with the book's plain icons for that reason.
Do I need to sign up or pay?
No. One PDF, six pages, no email address. They are not pages of the book: they are six new activities drawn by the book's renderer, with our mark and this address where a page number would be.
Guides that go with these
AB, ABC, AABB: what preschool pattern work teaches
Most pattern worksheets stop at AB and stay there. The progression past it is where the mathematics is.
Choosing a bookWhich activity book for which age: 3, 4, 5 and 6
The maze book lists from three. The other three list from four. Here is what sits inside those ranges: the book for each age, the page to open it at, and the sign that says move up.
For grown-upsHow to sit beside a child doing a worksheet
The most challenging part of an activity book is not on the page. It is sitting there while a four-year-old gets it wrong.
How we make themWhy our activity books are printed in black and white
The research behind it, the one finding that argues against it, and what the child gets in return.
Where these came from
These 6 are not in the book.
Matching, sorting, seriation, and patterns from AB to growing. This is the thinking a child needs before arithmetic makes sense. Seven units, each opening at its own easiest version: same and different, sorting by one rule then two, ordering by size, AB through AABB and growing patterns, sequencing events, shape and position, then challenges that combine them.
