Raven sits on the playground swing, gliding forward and back. Rocket watches from the bench.
"You go forward, then back, then forward again," he says. "It keeps repeating!"
"What do you notice about where I will be next?" Raven calls.
Nova floats beside the swing set. "Watch three swings," she says. "Then guess the fourth."
Rocket squints. He thinks he can predict it.
A pattern is something that repeats in a way you can predict.
Some motions make patterns. A swing goes forward, back, forward, back.
When you know a pattern, you can predict what comes next.
To predict means to use what you know to say what will happen.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| A pattern repeats in a way you can predict. | ? |
| A swing going forward and back is a pattern. | ? |
| You can never use a pattern to predict. | ? |
Raven swings forward, back, forward, back. Each time she goes forward, she comes back.
So if she is going forward now, we can predict she will come back next.
A good prediction uses what you saw. It is not a wild guess.
A guess with no clues is just a guess. A prediction uses a pattern.
Great pattern spotting! Tomorrow we meet a special swinging tool called a pendulum.