Gooby
What comes next? A pattern game
A row of pictures follows a pattern and one is missing. Pick the picture that fills the gap. Four questions make a round for little ones, five for big kids — and every round earns a star.
How to play
- Look at the row: what repeats? Say it out loud — "bunny, bear, bunny, bear…"
- Tap the picture that belongs in the ? square.
- A wrong picture wiggles and greys out; try another. Help greys out one more wrong picture.
How the patterns grow
- Up to age 7 (or no age set): critters in simple repeats — AB first, then AAB and ABB from level 3, ABC from level 5 and AABB from level 7.
- Ages 8–12: coloured shapes in ABC, AABB and ABBC repeats; from level 2 an arrow that turns a quarter each time and dot cards counting up; from level 3 the gap can be in the middle of the row; from level 4 ABCD repeats, eighth turns and counting in twos; from level 6 rows where the shape and the colour follow two different rules.
Seeing what repeats and predicting what comes next is early maths: it's the same thinking behind counting on, skip counting and, later, times tables.
Questions
Why are patterns good for young children?
Spotting what repeats and predicting what comes next is one of the first steps into maths: it is the same thinking behind counting on, skip counting and, later, times tables and algebra.
What happens after a wrong answer?
The picture wiggles and greys out, and the child tries another. Help greys out one more wrong picture. Nothing is counted.
What patterns do big kids get?
Longer repeats like ABCD and ABBC, an arrow that turns a quarter or an eighth each time, dot cards that count up by one or two, gaps in the middle of the row, and rows where the shape and the colour follow two different rules.