Use This Simple Idea to Make Patterns Explicit in Number Charts

When having second grade students explore patterns in number charts which were in increments of 300, it dawned on me to cover up some of the numbers to show students how the numbers repeated.  I did this on the document camera.  For those students who weren’t able to see the number patterns explicitly, this proved to be very helpful.

 The number chart is shown above uncovered.

First, I left one column uncovered except for the hundreds place.  Students were easily able to see how the hundreds place repeated.

Then I uncovered all but the tens place.  Students saw that the tens place goes up by one ten going down each row.

Finally, I uncovered all except the ones place and students were able to see that the ones place remained the same ALL the way down the chart.

In case you are interested, these number chart printables to 1,200 are available here.  There are fill in number charts too.

Smart Board lessons that match the printables are available here which may work even better for showing the patterns with the screen shade.