Virginia SOL 1.PFA.1.a
The Standard
Identify and describe repeating and increasing patterns.
Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics · The student will identify, describe, extend, create, and transfer repeating patterns and increasing patterns using various representations.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students decide whether a sequence repeats a short part or grows from one step to the next. They describe the rule using clear words about colors, shapes, numbers, sounds, or movements.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a new sequence, students correctly label it as repeating or increasing. They point out the shortest repeating unit or explain exactly how each step grows.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call any colorful or ordered arrangement a pattern. They often name the whole sequence instead of the shortest repeating unit. For increasing patterns, they may say “it gets bigger” without stating what changes each time.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Label red-blue-red-blue and 1 dot, 2 dots, 3 dots as repeating or increasing. Write or tell the rule for each.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs colored cubes to build red-blue-red-blue, red-red-blue-red-red-blue, and staircases of 1, 2, and 3 cubes, then name each rule.
Show red-blue-red-blue and 1, 2, 3, 4, then ask, “What changes, what repeats, and what should come next?”
Play Pattern Detective: display four sequences, and students earn a point by naming each as repeating, increasing, or neither and stating the rule.
Take a school walk to sketch tile borders, fence posts, and stacked displays, then label each as repeating, increasing, or not patterned.
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Printable 1.PFA.1.a Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 1.PFA.1.a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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Related Standards
- 4.PFA.1.a
Identify, describe, extend, and create increasing and decreasing patterns using various representations (e.g., objects, pictures, numbers, number lines, input/o...
- 5.PFA.1.a
Identify, describe, extend, and create increasing and decreasing patterns using various representations (e.g., objects, pictures, numbers, number lines, input/o...
- 2.PFA.1.a
The 2nd Grade version of this standard.
- 1.PFA.1
The student will identify, describe, extend, create, and transfer repeating patterns and increasing patterns using various representations.
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