The Value of Skip Counting

A Few Tips

Skip counting is an important skill and can really turn into a great deal of fun. Skip counting merely means to count by 2's, 3's, 4's etc. When a child learns to skip count, the strategy will help with later math concepts:

• Multiplication, let's say they're doing 4 x 6, they simply skip count by 4's or 6's tapping on each finger.....6....12.....18.....24 (tapping each finger as they skip count helps to remember how many times.)
• Division, let's say they're doing 25 divided by 5, again, they skip count by 5, tapping each finger so they know how many taps they've done as they count 5, 10, 15, 20, 25

These are just a couple to name a few. To an adult, it just makes sense, however, to a child, you will want to point out this strategy.  Another great way to emphasize skip counting is to use 100's charts. For these, you will ask the child to shade skip counts of 2 in yellow, or put an x on skip-counts to 4, or circle skip counts of 6. Get your imagination going as the ideas are endless.
See the worksheet resources here.

Enjoy and be sure to share your great ideas, educators are always looking for something new to try.