Using the chalkboard, overhead or demonstration board, show students several patterns in different forms—persons, objects, pictures, shapes, or colors. Students will then apply the A, B, C method of labeling a pattern. They will then identify the patterns that repeat the same.

Students may then work in pairs or groups of four to match patterns in different forms on sentence strips. Pairs or groups will be asked to verify that the patterns are the same using the A, B, C method of reading patterns.

As an extension, pairs or groups will be asked to create a pattern in a different form given a pattern strip using one set of materials, such as pattern blocks, pictures or sounds. Students may be able to create color patterns using same or different shape pictures that they color. If each pair or group is given a different set of materials, the teacher may want them to share their results as a whole group and verify that their created pattern repeats the same as the given pattern using the A, B, C method of labeling/reading a pattern.

Teachers should consider setting up a "Pattern Gallery" which displays the various patterns in many different forms created by the students. Students and the teacher could then take a gallery walk around the room, identifying patterns and matching patterns that are the same but in different forms. Through this rich discussion students will come to understand the power of more than one way to solve a problem.