I am a second grade teacher and need to clarify a question for my
students. Can one person possess more than one classification of
fingerprints (whorls, loops, arches, etc.) or will all ten fingers on
a person's hands contain the same pattern?

Dear teach2-ga,
  
As a former police officer who has taken hundreds of fingerprints I
can say that each finger of the same person has the potential to have
a different pattern. It is entirely coincidence if they seem to have
the same pattern on each of their fingers. But if one looks closely,
each of those basic patterns will be slightly different.

Perhaps they could try this experiment to see the results?
http://www.projectican.com/fingerprint.html

Electronic Privacy Information Center
?Fingerprint patterns are created from the ridges on your fingers. The
patterns, consisting of loops, whorls and arches, have been shown to
be unique between people. Even on a single individual, each of the ten
fingers has a different pattern.?
http://www.epic.org/privacy/biometrics/testimony_071802.html

Authentication Methods Used for Banking
?Even each finger for the same person has a different pattern. This
even holds true for identical twins. (Smith, 2005) Because of this
fact, fingerprint authentication is an excellent way to differentiate
users.?
http://www.infosecwriters.com/text_resources/pdf/Authentication_Methods_For_Banking.pdf

http://www.policensw.com/info/fingerprints/finger07.html

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


fingerprint different.pattern
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=fingerprint+different.pattern&btnG=Search&meta=

They can be different.  I have whorls on my thumbs and index fingers
and loops and arches on the others.  If yours are all of one type, I
am sure some children in the class can demonstrate variety.

Just a free comment.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It might be interesting to finger print your pupils, then cut them up
(the prints not the kids) and categorize the individual patterns.

The overall frequency distribution of different types by person and
group would be very interesting.