19th February 2026 – Noticing Patterns

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week we took time to the forest to focus on the step to wellbeing of ‘noticing’. Our current focus in Numeracy is exploring patterns and relationships. I then combined these two main aspects to plan for children to notice natural patterns in the forest area. Children were given magnifying glasses to really emphasise the point of noticing and to develop observation skills. Children then progressed to creating their own repeating patterns. One pair included themselves in the pattern, repeating leaf, leaf, twig, person, person and so on, while another pair created a symmetrical repeating pattern. Most children enjoyed this activity and completed with eagerness. Children not at the happy face gave reasons such as being cold or not having more free time in the mud.