Pattern Train

Red, blue, red, blue… what comes next? Finish the pattern on each train, spot the carriage that’s wrong, and build patterns of your own.

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

Game in progress

Play

On the screen At the table

Players

Harder patterns for

For older children: four-colour patterns, AABBC, and patterns that grow by two.

Trains each

3 5 8

Build with

Blocks Buttons Cereal

Turns each

1 2 3

In each turn, one player builds and the next keeps it going.

Options Read aloud Each pattern is read out: “red, blue, red, blue… what comes next?” Sounds A train whistle for every pattern you finish.

You’ll need

🙈

🔍

🚂

Use − and + to fix a count.

“…and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

Take turns. Each player gets their own train in their own colour.
Say the pattern out loud: “red, blue, red, blue…” What comes next? Tap it!
Not quite? Have another go. The train only leaves when it’s right.
Some trains grow: one dot, two dots, three dots… On some, one carriage is wrong. Tap it to fix it!
Two stars for getting it first time, one star after another go.

The builder copies the train with blocks, buttons or cereal, in a line from left to right.
The next player keeps the pattern going. Then check the answer on the screen.
Now the next player closes their eyes, and the builder sneaks in a mistake by swapping one piece.
Eyes open! Can they spot it? Then swap jobs.

Buttons, raisins and cereal can be swallowed. Play at the table with a grown-up close by, and keep them away from babies and toddlers.
No blocks? Use crayons, socks, spoons, or anything you have two or three kinds of.

Tick Harder patterns for older children. They get patterns like ABCD and AABBC, and trains that grow by two.
At the table, list an older child before a younger one, so the big ones build for the little ones.
Little ones love saying the pattern out loud, or clapping it: clap, clap, stamp!

1 to 4 choose what comes next. On a “find the mistake” train, 1 to 9 tap a carriage.
Enter or Space presses the main button, R says it again, and Y and N answer at the table.