Look at Patterns and Sequences of Shapes and Colours

In this activity, we will work out what comes next in a pattern of shapes or colours or shapes and colours! 

 

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 colour comes next in this pattern?

 

       

 

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

green, green, red, green, green, red 

 

It is two greens followed by one red. The pattern has finished on red, so the next colour would be green. 

 

        

 

So our answer is green. 

 

Example 3

What shape and colour come next in this pattern?

 

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The pattern is:

red square, blue triangle, red triangle, green square and then this is repeated 

 

We have finished with a green square, so if we look back at the pattern what comes after the green square? It is the red square. 

Our answer is red square. 

 

 

Are you ready to tackle some questions?