Patterns

The big, bright sun comes up. Hello, day. Then the moon peeks out. Goodnight, night. The sun and moon take turns, again and again. Look at your cozy shirt. Does it have a red stripe, then a blue stripe, then a red stripe? Red, blue, red, blue. When you sing your favorite song, you might clap your hands and stomp your feet. Clap, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap. I am all around you, making the world feel just right, like a song you know by heart.

Hello. I am Patterns. I am anything that happens again and again in a special order. People found me a very, very long time ago, even before there were houses or cars. During a time called the Stone Age, way back around 75,000 BCE, people lived in a cozy place called Blombos Cave in South Africa. They used pointy tools to draw on soft red rocks. They made zig-zag lines that went up and down, up and down. They made criss-cross lines that looked like little hugs, X-X-X. They were some of the first people to make me, showing everyone how beautiful I am when I repeat.

You can find me everywhere you look today, too. Look closely at a pretty flower outside. Its soft petals grow all the way around in the same special way. That’s me. A buzzy little bee has yellow and black stripes on its back. Yellow, black, yellow, black. That’s me, too. When you build with your blocks and stack them red, blue, red, blue, you are playing with me. Even when you eat breakfast and then brush your teeth every morning, you are making a pattern. Finding me is a fun game that helps your brain grow big and strong. The world is a happy puzzle, and I am here to help you solve it.