🧩 Matching & Sorting
Match the Shapes
Ages 3–5
🧩 Matching & Sorting
What Comes Next?
Five shape patterns to continue, each with three answer choices to circle.
- Suitable for
- Ages 4–5
- Pages
- 1 page
- Level
- Medium
- Printing
- Black & white
Free, no sign-up. A4 · Print at 100% scale
What your child practises
- Recognises repeating AB and AAB patterns
- Predicts the next item in a sequence
- Explains a pattern rule in their own words
- Chooses from options rather than drawing freehand
About this worksheet
Pattern recognition is the foundation of a great deal of later mathematics, and it starts with simple repeating sequences like the ones on this page.
Two kinds of pattern appear here. The straightforward AB and ABAB rows alternate two shapes, which most four year olds spot quickly. The AAB and ABB rows are noticeably harder, because the child has to notice that one shape repeats before the other returns.
Each row offers three answer choices rather than an open blank, so a child who can see the pattern but cannot yet draw the shape neatly is not held back by their drawing.
How to use this sheet
Ask your child to read the pattern out loud — circle, square, circle, square — before choosing. Hearing it usually makes the answer obvious.
