Taken from http://www.rockabyebutterfly.com/
I got out our 100 Poster and we looked at skipping numbers to count every second number, every fifth number, and every tenth number.
We counted by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s by using the chart, which helps the children to see ALL of the numbers and how we skip them in a pattern to count faster.
Next we got our Three Bears Family Counters.
We made number lines with them, every second bear was taller, to help us count by 2’s.
Then we made a line to count by 5’s. Four small bears, then one large bear. When we finished the patterned line, we just touched the big bears when counting by 5’s.
For another visual on why we use skip counting, I put together a pile of 40 bears together. I said to the children, we could count every bear one at a time to see how many are in this pile, or we can skip count to count them faster! So I grabbed piles of five bears and separated them, then counted by 5’s to reach 40 bears in all!
I made some quick number cards out of paper, we lined up 10, and I had Butterfly and her friends put two bears on every second number. This was another good visual on counting by 2’s. We count every two bears to reach a total of 10 faster. Putting them on a number line helps visualize skip counting.
I spread out my easily made number cards to 20, in rows on the floor. Including a gross motor activity works great with kids because when moving their body while learning a new concept really helps cement the lesson. We skip counted by 2’s, by hopping on every second number as we called them out. Stand on 2, jump to 4, jump to 6, jump to 8, ect.
We hopped on 5’s and then the 10’s as well. It really shows the children how they can skip numbers in a pattern by physically moving their body on a larger number scale.
With a sit down craft, I had the girls trace their hands on a large piece of paper, in rows. As many as they can fit on the paper.
Because we have five fingers on one hand, they counted by 5’s with their hand prints, finding out that they drew a total of 30 fingers!
There are a couple of sheets on counting by 2’s.
And a couple of sheets on counting by 5’s.
Along with a sheet on counting by 10’s.
Thanks for your support and Happy Counting!