Freebie Alert: Dive into Easy and Fun Skip Counting Practice

Why is Skip Counting Important? 

Skip counting helps lead students into multiplication. 

Most students learn skip counting without realizing they are learning how to multiply.

Memorizing and practicing multiplication facts is really hard. It takes a lot of brain power to hold all those numbers in. 

This is where skip counting has superpowers. The more comfortable students are with counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, the more space their brain has to memorize their 3s, 4s, and 9s. 

Check out the bottom of this post to download free skip counting posters for your classroom!

Fun Ways to Practice Multiples

The biggest part of teaching and practicing skip counting is giving students time and space to do it over and over again. 

Here are some of my favorite ways to bring multiples practice into your school day! 

🌟 Play a Game!! 

• Play Sparkle, but for skip counting instead of spelling (Find the rules for Sparkle here) 
• Change up your hopscotch area to have students practice their skip counting 
• Split your class in half and challenge each side to see which group can skip count the longest by different numbers
  

🌟 Sort Items into Groups 

• Pull out your cute erasers and have students sort them into groups of 2, 4, 10, etc. I’ve seen lots of mini erasers on Amazon! 
• Get your class up and moving by sorting your students into groups of 2, 3, 5, etc. (You could even use this activity to introduce the idea of remainders to your students!!) 

🌟 Use Lining Up Time 

• Have students skip count as they walk from their seats to their spots in line
• In addition, skip count to form your line (have each student give the next number in the sequence) 
• Skip count (in a whisper) as you wait outside the specials classroom 

🌟 Use a Hundreds Chart 

• Lead students through a process of marking numbers as you skip count 
• Skip count by different amounts using different colors or markings (You could add transparent circles or mini erasers on each number as you skip count) 
• Ask students to talk about the patterns they notice 
• Challenge students to make predictions about what numbers come next after 100 

🌟 Try it with Calculators 

• Have students practice adding a number over and over again (5+5+5+5…)
• Make it a game! First, partner students up. Then, have one student guess the answer before the other student hits = 

Use Skip Counting to Practice Multiplication  

Okay, so your students mastered their 2s, 5s, and 10s. Now what? 

Next, you will need to help students understand that skip counting IS multiplication. 

Not sure where to start? My all-time favorite resource to help students connect skip counting with multiplication is using big printable posters. 

These posters combine skip counting and multiplication perfectly. They show multiplication facts as skip counting! 

After I taught my students how to use the posters, they made the connection between skip counting and multiplication SO much easier. 

Also, students LOVE using this tool to practice multiplication. 

I would use these posters in two different ways. 

  1️⃣ I would print them out and post them at the front of the classroom. 

To enlarge the skip counting posters, you can print each number on 4 separate pieces of paper. After printing, cut the numbers out and tape them together. This will make your numbers large and easy to see! I have included instructions on page 1 of the freebie on how to do so.  

  2️⃣ I would print smaller versions of the posters (4 to a page) for my students to keep in their folders for easy reference. 

       These would be great to laminate to help them last longer! 

If you are looking for a set of 1-12 skip counting posters to include in your classroom, I can send you this freebie using this link!

These posters are created in modern calm colors and work well in any classroom theme.