AABB Pattern with Animals

On this sheet the pattern goes first, first, second, second — an AABB pattern — using animals like a cat, a sheep and a hen. The child reads the four-part repeat, where each picture comes in a pair, and fills the empty wagons to extend it. Continuing a paired pattern is foundational Kindergarten patterning, the skill of finding and following a rule, with nothing to count.

AABB asks a child to think in pairs: the unit is a block of the first picture and a block of the second, each a couple. Filling the wagons means keeping the pairs intact. A animals version of the paired pattern lets a child practise grouping and the steady two-two rhythm of evenly-blocked sequences.

Children who read the AABB pattern in pairs get faster at spotting where each block of two begins, and finishing the matched couples feels satisfying, a reward for thinking in twos. When this feels easy, try the pattern in aabb pattern with household things, or aabb pattern with birds. You can also browse every pattern worksheet or the whole kindergarten collection — each sheet prints cleanly or plays online for free, and once thinking in twos comes easily, a child is ready for ABC, with its three different pictures in a fixed order — a fresh kind of challenge.