AB Pattern with Supermarket Things

What comes next in the pattern? On this sheet a row of supermarket things repeats in an AB rhythm — one picture, then a second, then back to the first — and the child fills the empty wagons to keep the pattern going. Seeing that two pictures alternate and predicting the next is the heart of early patterning, the thinking skill of finding and extending a rule. The familiar pictures keep the focus on the repeat.

Patterning begins with the AB pattern: notice the back-and-forth, predict the next. A child who can extend a two-element repeat is building the foundation for harder patterns and for ordered thinking. Using familiar supermarket things keeps every choice about the alternating rule, and the task stays a looking-and-reasoning one, never a counting one.

Children who get the hang of the AB back-and-forth start predicting the next picture at a glance, and finishing a clean alternating train feels satisfying, a small and clear early win. When this feels easy, try the pattern in ab pattern with bakery treats, or ab pattern with breakfast. You can also browse every pattern worksheet or the whole kindergarten collection — each sheet prints cleanly or plays online for free, and the more two-part patterns a child completes, the readier they are for patterns where a picture starts to double — the natural next step up the ladder.