Many introductions to algebra in high school begin with teaching students to generalise linear numerical patterns. This article argues that this approach needs to be changed so that students encounter variables in the context of modelling visual patterns so that the variables have a meaning. The article presents sample classroom activities, together with sample work from students in the author's Year 7 classroom at a Catholic school in the South East of Melbourne. It concludes that there are many ways for teachers to help students make generalisations from visual patterns. Textbooks encourage students to generate tables of values and then to deduce rules from those tables. This approach is not hard for students to grasp and can be deferred. If students are to develop multiple strategies for thinking about such problems, teachers need to help them relate formulas to visual patterns. This, in turn, will give the variables some meaning as the algebra becomes an alternative representation of a tangible situation.