· 2 min read · Ages 5–8 · Kindergarten through Grade 2
Skip counting sheets that start somewhere other than zero
Count by fives from zero and every kindergartner can. Count by fives from 35 and the song stops. The sheet starts at 35.
Ask a kindergartner to count by fives and you get 5, 10, 15, 20 in a sing-song. Ask them to count by fives starting at 35 and the song stops. That gap, between the chant and the pattern, is what this sheet is for.
What the sheet looks like
The skip counting worksheet generator prints rows of eight boxes. Each row starts at a multiple of the step, shows some numbers filled in, and leaves blanks for the child. Count by 2s, 5s, 10s, 3s, 4s, 25s or 100s, and go Forwards, Backwards or Mixed. Difficulty changes which boxes are blank: Easy shows the first three numbers and leaves the last five, Medium scatters the blanks across the row, and Hard gives only two hints in eight. Put 6, 8, 10 or 12 rows on the page, with an answer key if you want one.
Why it works
- Starting mid-sequence, 40, 45, blank, blank, means the child cannot recite from the beginning. They have to know what follows 45.
- Backwards rows are where understanding shows. A child who knows 2s forwards and freezes at 18, 16, blank has memorized a chant, not a pattern.
- Scattered blanks in Medium make them look both ways, at what came before and what comes after. That is the start of number-line thinking.
Who it suits
2s, 5s and 10s forwards are kindergarten. Backwards, 3s and 4s are first and second grade, and 25s and 100s suit a second grader working on money and place value. Hard, with two hints in eight, is a real challenge even on the 10s. The hundreds chart with multiples highlighted is the picture of what this sheet asks for, so print both the same day.
Eight rows is enough for one sitting. Twelve is for a class that has done this before.