AB Pattern with Classroom Objects

What comes next in the pattern? On this sheet a row of classroom objects 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.

Extending an AB pattern asks a child to hold a simple rule in mind and apply it again and again. That steady rule-following is foundational Kindergarten readiness, the same thinking behind ordered sequences later. A familiar classroom objects alternation keeps the task playful and the rule easy to see, with no numbers at all.

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 clothes, or ab pattern with easter. 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.