Easy Math Activities of Patterns & Function Tables

A function table is a table of order pairs that follow a pattern or a rule. For example, the table could have an input and an output, and the student must figure out what function makes the pattern. The first two inputs might be 6 and 9 and the first two outputs might be 4 and 7. In this case, the function is "- 2," because you must subtract 2 from the input to get the output in each case.

The Function Machine (Online)

If you or your students have access to a computer, you can use the online Function Machine game to teach your students function tables and patterns. Appropriate for grades 3 and 4, this game requires you to fill in the input, output or function to make all the patterns true.

Spiders

A spider has eight legs. How many legs do three spiders have? How many legs do six or nine spiders have? In this case, the input is the number of spiders, the output is the number of legs and the function is the rule that makes the equation true. Students should determine how many legs the spider has, the function used to determine the number of legs and the number of legs that, say, 25 spiders would have.

Restaurant Tables

A square restaurant table can seat four people. If a second square restaurant table is scooted next to the first table, there will be two tables that can accommodate six people. The students should figure out how many customers can be seated at each table if there are three, four, five or six tables, then determine a function that makes this pattern true.

Growning Hexagon Dragons

There are three hexagons connected to one another with three triangles connected to the hexagons to form the shape of a dragon body. This is dragon 1. In dragon 2, there are four hexagons with four triangles. In the third dragon, there are 5 hexagons and 5 triangles.

To the left of the hexagons is a table with a cell for each of the dragons: 1, 2 and 3. The next cell in the table is the number of blocks added -- the first dragon has 6 blocks added -- and the third table is the function -- 3 + 3 = 6 for the first dragon.

Fill in the first line of the table for the students, the line for Dragon 1, and have the students fill in the lines for the next two lines. Have the students draw the next two dragons in the pattern.