Virginia SOL 5.PFA.1.a
The Standard
Identify, describe, extend, and create increasing and decreasing patterns using various representations (e.g., objects, pictures, numbers, number lines, input/output tables, function machines).
Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics · The student will identify, describe, extend, and create increasing and decreasing patterns with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals, including those in context, using various representations.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students decide whether a pattern increases or decreases, state the rule, and use it to find missing or later terms. They also create patterns with whole numbers, fractions, or decimals and show them with models, tables, or number lines.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can examine objects, pictures, sequences, number lines, or input/output tables and describe the change precisely. The student extends the pattern accurately, creates one that follows a stated rule, and shows the same pattern another way.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may say a pattern is going up or down without naming the amount or operation. They may add fraction denominators or ignore decimal place value when extending a pattern. In tables, they may confuse the input and output columns or apply the rule inconsistently.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: The pattern begins 3.5, 3.1, 2.7. Tell whether it increases or decreases, state the rule, write three more terms, and plot all six values.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs fraction strips labeled in twelfths; students arrange 11/12, 8/12, 5/12, extend twice, and name the rule.
Display 1.4, 1.7, 2.0 and ask students to explain why adding 0.3 works and which representation best proves it.
Play Pattern Relay: teams draw a rule card, generate four terms, then swap sequences and identify each other’s rule.
Use a water tank starting at 12.5 liters and losing 0.75 liter hourly; students make and graph a six-hour table.
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- 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...
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Create increasing and decreasing patterns using objects, pictures, numbers, and number lines.
- 3.PFA.1.a
Identify and describe increasing and decreasing patterns using various representations (e.g., objects, pictures, numbers, number lines).
- 4.PFA.1
The student will identify, describe, extend, and create increasing and decreasing patterns (limited to addition, subtraction, and multiplication of whole number...
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