The story in three lines. Bà Tư's stripy scarf has a hole where one stripe should be. Tí wants his favourite green, but Stringy finds the part that repeats and Loop sings it out loud. The song stops at the hole, and when Beady asks what comes next, Tí says red.

The five nights. Night one, just listen. Night two, pause before the last word of each refrain line. Night three, stop at the guess page and ask what colour comes next. Night four, make the spoon-and-fork row. Night five, let your child tell it to a toy.

One thing to do at the table. Lay out a row of two kinds of thing: spoon, fork, spoon, fork. Leave a gap in the middle and ask what goes there. Then try a pattern of three: cup, cup, spoon, cup, cup, spoon.

The grown-up layer. The smallest piece of a pattern that repeats is called its unit. Once a child finds the unit, every next item is decided. Saying the pattern aloud helps, because rhythm carries it. BeadTots plays with the same idea, and so does clapping games on any playground.