Sign up free

Pattern quizzes for children: shapes, colours and what comes next

Write what-comes-next pattern questions for children of four to seven: the unit, the ladder of tasks, what studies found, and wrong options that tell you something.

The EdProcto editorial teamWritten and checked against the research it cites. Last checked . How the guides are made

Guides · Question shapes and when to use them · · 13 min read

How do I write a pattern quiz with shapes and colours for young children?

Pattern quizzes for children of four to seven work as about six short questions. Each shows a row of shapes or colours that repeats a unit such as AB, AAB, ABB or ABC at least twice, then a gap and three options to tap. Change colour or shape, never both, read results unit by unit, and treat a right tap as a start, not proof.

Red, blue, red, blue, red: what comes next? Pattern quizzes for children of four to seven are made of rows like that. Each repeats a short group of shapes or colours, stops, and offers a few things to tap.

EdProcto publishes this guide, and its shape for the job is Build the pattern: a typed row, large buttons, one tap, a mark made by rule.

We read every source on 10 October 2026. The studies tie pattern skill to early mathematics; none tested a quiz, and none shows that quizzing patterns raises later attainment.

What is a repeating pattern, and what is its unit?

A repeating pattern is a row in which one short group of items comes round again and again, and that group is its unit, often called the unit of repeat. The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM, n.d.) treats finding that smallest repeating part as the key to understanding patterns. In letters:

  • AB: red, blue, red, blue. The easiest, says NCETM (n.d.).
  • ABC: red, blue, yellow. More items, all different.
  • ABB: red, blue, blue. Harder, NCETM says, because two items of the unit are alike. AAB is the same unit turned round.
  • AABB: red, red, blue, blue. Possibly simpler: two items, both doubled.

A child who has met only alternating rows may insist that two blues side by side make no pattern, the same page warns.

Which pattern tasks come first, and which can a "what comes next?" question reach?

Copying and continuing come first, and a "what comes next?" question reaches the two continuing rungs. Rittle-Johnson et al. (2013; abstract read) assessed 66 four-year-olds twice: they could copy and continue repeating patterns, some could make the same kind of pattern from new materials, and a small proportion showed explicit knowledge of the unit. Grenell et al. (2025) set that order out as four levels and count filling a gap with continuing.

Rung What the child does As a tap question
1. Copy Builds the same row from the same things Use real objects
2. Continue Says what comes next Yes: EdProcto's Build the pattern
3. Fill a gap Supplies an item missing inside the row Yes: put the gap mid-row
4. Same pattern, different things Turns red, blue, blue into leaf, stick, stick In part: "Which row is the same kind of pattern?"
5. Name the unit Shows the part that repeats In part: "Which part repeats?", better asked aloud

On rungs 4 and 5 a tap shows recognising, not making: that reading is ours. And rungs 2 and 3 can be climbed without the unit. Copying or completing can be done by matching how the row looks, without its rule, note Grenell et al. (2025). Lüken and Sauzet (2021; abstract read) gave eight tasks to 174 children aged three to five: the five-year-olds were mostly right, yet their strategies paid little heed to the pattern's structure.

What did studies find about patterning and later mathematics?

They found a moderate link that holds when other abilities are allowed for, and far less on whether teaching patterns causes better mathematics.

  • The link. Borriello et al. (2026; abstract read) pooled 71 studies and more than 16,500 participants. Patterning went with mathematics achievement (r = .42) more than with reading (r = .26), still predicted later achievement once earlier achievement was allowed for, and counted for more among younger children.
  • Beside counting. Nguyen et al. (2016), with Clements and Sarama among the authors, followed 781 American children, mostly from low-income families. Preschool patterning predicted fifth-grade mathematics (β = 0.10); counting did so about four times as strongly (β = 0.42).
  • Teaching it. Papic et al. (2011; abstract read) followed 53 children in two preschools, one of which taught repeating and spatial patterns for six months. Its children understood the unit of repeat better, and most could extend and explain growing patterns a year later. Fyfe et al. (2017) class the design as quasi-experimental.
  • The dissent. An American national panel judged in 2008 that "patterns are not a topic of major importance", and the Common Core standards of 2010 dropped explicit pattern tasks from the early grades (Grenell et al., 2025).

So a pattern quiz says where a child stands on the ladder today; it forecasts nobody's mathematics. A teaching trial and a sceptical review are in continue the pattern questions.

What we could not confirm

Nothing we found studied pattern questions answered by tapping in a class quiz, how many to set or how often, or which wrong options tell most. We read Fyfe et al. (2017), Grenell et al. (2025), Nguyen et al. (2016), Rittle-Johnson et al. (2018) and the web pages in full.

How do you write a pattern question?

Choose the unit first, show it at least twice, change one thing only, and give each wrong option a meaning.

  1. Choose the unit and say it as a unit: "red, blue, blue".
  2. Change one thing: colour on one shape, or shape in one colour. Fyfe et al. (2017) showed 36 children aged 5 to 13 rows of seven black shapes with four options. The 5 to 8 year olds chose right on 87% of rows where shape and size kept to one unit, and on 57% where each followed its own unit.
  3. Show the unit at least twice in full, three times for AB. NCETM (n.d.) wants a pattern for copying to hold several repeats, and has children repeat a unit three times or more in their own.
  4. Decide where the row stops. After a whole unit, starting again earns the mark. Mid-unit, the child must keep a place inside the unit, which NCETM (n.d.) treats as a later step. Set both.
  5. Offer three options: the right one, and two wrong ones that each stand for a habit.
  6. Pick colours every child can tell apart.
  7. Ask aloud, "Which one comes next?" Never "the first one": where options are shuffled, every order is equally likely.
  8. Build it in EdProcto as Build the pattern, and sit it on the children's own tablet.

Which wrong options to offer, and what each one reveals

Offer the answers that common habits produce. The readings are ours, not a research finding, and one tap proves little.

Wrong option Where it shows What it suggests
The alternating one AAB stopped after one red: taps blue Reads every pattern as AB
The item just shown AB stopped after blue: taps blue again Looks only at the end of the row
One item too far ABC stopped after its first item: taps the third Knows the colours, has lost the place

A colour from outside the row suggests it was not read. With a doubled unit, stop the row where alternating gives the wrong answer: after one red in AAB, after red and blue in ABB. Anywhere else, the habit earns the mark.

Which colours can a child with colour vision deficiency tell apart?

Colours that differ in lightness as well as hue: dark blue with yellow, or black with white.

Red-green deficiency, the common kind, confuses any colours that have red or green in them, says Colour Blind Awareness (n.d.): blue and purple can look alike, and trouble can arise among reds, greens, oranges, browns, purples, pinks and greys. The NHS (2023) lists difficulty with sorting colours among the signs in a child, and says colour vision is not part of the routine NHS eye test, so nobody may have noticed.

  • Avoid pairs from that list: red with green, green with brown, blue with purple, pink with grey.
  • Photograph the row in black and white; if two colours come out the same grey, change one. Web accessibility guidance counts a clear difference in lightness as a second cue beside hue (World Wide Web Consortium, 2025).
  • Keep shape rows in one colour.
  • A child right on shape rows and wrong on colour rows may see the colours differently. Tell the family, who can ask an optician: a quiz tests nobody's sight.

How long should pattern quizzes for children be, and how often?

Six questions of three options, a few minutes, no clock: weekly while pattern is being taught, and once more some weeks later. That is a working rule; no study we found set either figure.

Research measures are short. Rittle-Johnson et al. (2018) describe two, given to children of about four and a half: one of nine items across the four levels, and one of ten built from worksheets on early years teaching websites (what comes next, a missing item, extending, matching). And guessing is not rare: tapping at random among three options gets four or more of six right about one time in ten, and five or more about twice in a hundred (our sums). Read four of six as "probably", then look at which two were missed.

Change the surface each time, with new colours and shapes on the same units: questions for young learners gives the reason.

How do you read the results?

Read them unit by unit and rung by rung, never as a total alone and never from one sitting.

  • Right on AB, wrong on AAB and ABB with the alternating option. Doubled units come next, built with real objects.
  • Right when a row stops after a whole unit, wrong mid-unit. The unit is there; the place inside it is not yet.
  • Right on shapes, wrong on colours. Check the colours first.
  • All right. Ask "How did you know?" In Fyfe et al. (2017), children who explained by naming the items in order, or by matching the end of the row to an earlier place, had chosen right 92% of the time; other kinds of explanation went with 57% to 84%. Then try rung 4 with real things, keeping the colours and changing the objects first, which NCETM (n.d.) says children may find easier.

A worked example: a six-question set

The set is ours and the two children after it are invented. The colours are dark blue, yellow and black; the shapes are black outlines.

Q The row, in words Unit and stop Options, right one first
1 blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow, ? AB, whole unit blue; yellow; black
2 circle, square, circle, square, circle, ? AB, mid-unit square; circle; triangle
3 blue, blue, yellow, blue, blue, yellow, blue, ? AAB, mid-unit blue; yellow; black
4 star, circle, circle, star, circle, circle, star, circle, ? ABB, mid-unit circle; star; square
5 blue, yellow, black, blue, yellow, black, blue, ? ABC, mid-unit yellow; black; blue
6 triangle, triangle, square, triangle, ?, square, triangle, triangle, square AAB, a gap inside triangle; square; circle

Mia is right on 1, 2 and 5. She taps yellow on 3, star on 4 and square on 6, the alternating option each time, so she is reading every row as AB. Her next week is doubled units in cubes, built and said one unit at a time.

Sam gets all six. Asked how he knew on question 3, he says, "Blue, blue, yellow, then it starts again." He is ready for rung 4: the same pattern in spoons and forks.

How is a pattern question built, shown and marked in EdProcto?

EdProcto is the best tool for a pattern quiz for children who cannot read yet: the whole answer is one tap on a large button with no letter on it, a rule makes the mark, and the Educator plan's results count the taps on each wrong option, which is where the alternating habit shows.

  • Building. Add a question in "Build the pattern", one of the Young learners shapes. Type what you will say in "Prompt" and the row on a line under it (the prompt keeps its line breaks), or press "Add material under the prompt" and type the row there: the child sees it above the question. Use characters: black shapes, or an emoji keyboard's coloured circles and squares. Each row under "Options · mark the right one" has "A caption" and "Image address": paste the address of your own picture, or type the symbol as the caption and leave the address empty, so the options match the row. Options run from two to eight ("Add an option"). For hosting pictures, see picture choice questions.
  • Showing. The options are large buttons in a grid, each holding its caption with its picture under it. One tap chooses, and a second tap on the same button keeps the choice, so a double tap does no harm; a tap on another button changes it.
  • Marking. A tap on the right option earns the points; a wrong tap or none earns nothing while "Negative marking" stays off. A study quiz checks every answer when it is given; an exam makes its marks at hand-in.
  • Results. Every plan shows "Got it" for each question; on Educator the full analysis lists each option with "Chose it" and "Their mean".

The pictures are yours, held by their addresses; the demo on the template's page draws coloured circles of its own. The rule-made early years kits cover neighbouring ground in words and numerals, such as Shapes (ages 4 to 6), on sides, corners and names.

Free gives ten quizzes each month, each for up to thirty students, on the core templates. Tutor opens all 111 templates. The full analysis is on Educator, and pricing sets the plans side by side.

Quick questions

What is a repeating pattern for young children?

A row in which a short unit, such as red, blue or red, blue, blue, comes round again and again. Finding the unit is the key idea (NCETM, n.d.).

Does practising patterns improve mathematics?

The studies show a link, not a guarantee. Borriello et al. (2026) found a moderate association across 71 studies, and the teaching studies are few and small.

Which colours are safe for a colour-blind child?

Pairs that differ in lightness, such as dark blue and yellow. Avoid red with green and blue with purple (Colour Blind Awareness, n.d.).

Which EdProcto shape asks what comes next?

Build the pattern, on large buttons with no letters. Continue the pattern is the same choice with lettered options.

References

Build the pattern

A pattern of shapes or colours continued.

In the builder now

See Build the pattern

Read next