Outer Space Preschool Pattern & Sort Activity - FREE Printable

Blast off into learning with this outer space preschool pattern sort activity. A fun and hands-on way for kids to practice early math skills—plus get the printable for free!

The Outer Space Preschool Pattern & Sort cards are sorted in four vertical patterns.

Our outer space preschool pattern and sort activity is a two-for-one

Who doesn’t love a buy one get one free, a two for the price of one, a BOGO?

It’s even better when the whole thing is free.

Our free printable can be used in 2+ ways and is loaded with mathematical learning for young students. Simply print off, cut out, and go!

🪐 Related: Our GIANT outer space coloring banner will rock-et your world!

The Outer Space Preschool Pattern & Sort cards are all sorted together by image (a stack of meteor cards, moon cards, telescope cards, Earth cards, rocket cards, planet cards, and Sun cards).

Kids love this outer space preschool pattern and sort activity

One of my favorite things about kids is how they love helping adults prep and set things up. When I ask for a volunteer to help with XYZ, all the hands fly up!

For this activity, all of the cards need to be sorted before they can be patterned, and it’s an excellent opportunity for kids to help you prep and sneak in additional learning.

And because it’s just printed paper, you can throw the pieces in a baggie when done and repeat whenever you want.

🪐 Looking for more outer space activities? These will put a smile on your space:

All 10 of the pages included in the free printables, each with an image repeated 15 times: planet, rocket, Earth, telescope, moon, satellite, Sun, meteor, astronaut, and stars.

Materials

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FREE printable
Scissors

How to play this outer space pattern game

At a glance: cut, sort, and pattern.

Cut: Begin by printing and cutting out the cards. In the free download, there are 10 designs included: planet, rocket, Earth, telescope, moon, satellite, Sun, meteor, astronaut, and stars.

Sort: Once all the cards are cut out, place them in a big, mixed-up pile and invite your child to sort them out. For example, all the Earth cards will be stacked together, all the meteor cards will be stacked together, etc.

This is EXCELLENT math practice! Sorting items by attribute and matching like items is an essential skill for patterning and many other math skills.

An adult could sort these on their own, but inviting your child to do it makes the activity last longer and have more mathematical depth.

Pattern: Now that all the pieces are separated, it’s time to pattern. Begin a pattern (ex: satellite, moon, satellite, moon…) and invite your child to continue it. As your child masters a pattern type, increase the difficulty and introduce new patterns. Once they’re a master, ask them to create their own patterns, too!

Why I love vertical patterning

Usually, when we pattern with kids, we work from left to right (just like how we read!). We line objects up from left to right, and kids continue the pattern in the same direction.

However, vertical patterning (working from top to bottom) is also how we read, but it makes it feel different than “normal” patterning, and it’s extra fun. It’s the same concept, just presented with a minor tweak.

We do a lot of patterning in our Virtual Preschool and always try to keep it fresh with vertical and horizontal patterns.

To learn more about patterning, its place in the mathematical field, and how to teach different levels of patterning, check out this wonderful post.

A mixed pile of cards sits at the bottom of the photo and neat piles are sorted above it. A hand puts an Earth card into the Earth stack.

Speaking of reading, this math activity ALSO has a reading skill in it

And it’s called “directionality.”

When we read in English, we read from top to bottom and from left to right. So patterning generally follows the same rule where kids work in the same direction as when they read.

To compare, Hebrew and Arabic are read from right to left. Some languages are read from bottom to top, too!

Fun fact: when I lived in Boise, I worked with many kids and families who spoke Arabic, and I adjusted how I taught directionality concepts to those students. As an English speaker, this was new to me, and I loved observing how different languages work!

A mixed pile of cards show various images and sits on a black background.

How do you teach kids about outer space?

Outer space can be a very abstract concept for young children, but it’s still fun to learn about.

To make space something that makes more sense to them, focus on what they can actually see and interact with.

Encourage them to observe the moon and stars, read books with photos of outer space, investigate rocks, dirt, and plants, learn about water, explore gravity, etc.