Look at Patterns of Shapes

In this activity, we will work out what comes next in a pattern of shapes. 

 

Let's have a look at a few examples. 

 

Example 1

What shape comes next in this pattern?

 

            

 

Let's have a look at this pattern - it is going:

triangle, square, triangle, square, triangle, square

 

So, the shapes are alternating between triangle and square. If the last shape is a square then that means that the next shape will be the other shape we have here, which is a triangle: 

 

            

 

So our answer is triangle. 

 

Example 2

What shape comes next in this pattern?

 

   

 

Let's have a look at this pattern - it is going:

square, triangle, triangle, square, triangle, triangle 

 

It is one square followed by two triangles. The pattern has finished on the second triangle, so the next shape would be a square:

 

    

 

So our answer is square. 

 

 

Are you ready to tackle some questions?