Chapter 3 — Patterns Around Us

Chapter 3 of the Class 4 Mathematics NCERT textbook (Maths Mela), "Patterns Around Us", introduces young learners to counting in groups, recognising number patterns with play money, and discovering odd and even numbers through pairing arrangements. Children count coconut trees, laddoos, and coins, then explore how numbers pair up — or don't — to understand even and odd. Download the PDF and read a summary and Q&A below.

• Counting in Groups and Arrangements — The chapter opens with real-life scenes — Gundappa's coconut trees seen from a top view, and Muniamma's trays of coconut laddoos and milk pedas arranged in equal rows. Students count objects by grouping them in different ways and share their thinking with the class. This builds flexible counting strategies beyond simple one-by-one counting.
• Patterns with Play Money — Shirley and Shiv arrange play money of denominations 1, 2, 5, and 10 in visual patterns. Students figure out the total value of each arrangement and then create their own arrangements to show amounts like ₹36, ₹125, and ₹183. This connects pattern recognition directly to the concept of place value and coin combinations.
• Odd and Even Numbers Through Pairing — Shiv arranges coins in pairs — his counts (2, 4, 6, …) are called even numbers. Shirley's arrangements always leave one unpaired — her counts (1, 3, 5, …) are called odd numbers. Students classify numbers from 1 to 100, observe that numbers before and after an odd number are always even, and investigate whether the times-2 table always gives even numbers.
• Identifying Even and Odd in Larger Numbers — Students extend pairing logic to two- and three-digit numbers such as 30, 46, 78, 67, 300, 154, 415, and 99. They also make 2-digit numbers from given digits and check whether the results are even or odd. Shirley observes an even-odd alternating pattern in her textbook's page numbers, encouraging students to look for patterns in everyday objects.

1. 01Chapter 3 teaches counting objects in groups using real-life scenes like coconut trees and laddoo trays
2. 02Play money patterns help students count coin arrangements and make amounts like ₹36, ₹125, and ₹183
3. 03Even numbers can be arranged in pairs with none left over (e.g., 2, 4, 6, 8)
4. 04Odd numbers always have one left unpaired (e.g., 1, 3, 5, 7)
5. 05Students classify numbers from 1 to 100 as odd or even using the pairing method
6. 06The numbers immediately before and after any odd number are always even
7. 07All numbers in the times-2 table are even — students discover this by exploring the pattern
8. 08Even and odd numbers alternate in order — a pattern visible in textbook page numbers