Materials:
Styrofoam meat tray
An old sponge
Blue tempera paint
A few cookie cutters
A narrow strip of construction paper
Directions: Dampen the sponge, and place it on the Styrofoam tray. Pour some paint on the sponge and spread it all over the sponge. (We used an expired gift card to spread the paint around—works great!) Ask your child to choose two of the cookie cutters. Dip the first one into the paint-saturated sponge. Let your child know that he’s going to make the first print on the left side of the paper strip. After he makes a print, invite him to dip the second cookie cutter in the paint and make a print next to the first shape. You can tell him he’s created a sequence of two shapes. Repeat the process, stamping with one shape and then the other all the way to the end of the strip of paper.
I limit the pattern to just one color, as we’re focusing on making a pattern, not on color. When he’s a confident pattern-maker, you can certainly introduce a two-color pattern!