Skip Counting: What is it?

 Skip Counting is counting by regular intervals, repeatedly, to reach a certain value. It is counting by a number other than one.

Overview

In early grades, students learn to skip count by 2, 5, and 10s.  They learn to skip count forwards and backwards.  Then later they learn to skip by 100s, 50s and 25s.  Skip counting is different then counting rhythmically.  To ensure students connect the values of the counts have them build the amounts with cubes or counters.  This will support students as them begin to understand that each skip count, or grouping, is a unit of a certain amount.

                                                                                                         (5, 10, 15, 20 is 4 units of 5)

When skip counting, students learn that you can count to a certain number faster instead of counting all numbers individually.  Initially, students will solve problems like: 5, 2's by modeling 2 counters, then copying that 5 times.  They then count all of the counters individually to find the product.  As students learn to skip count and grasp the efficiency of skip counting, they will progress to counting by 2’s in this problem rather than 1’s.

From skip counting students learn that groups of equal sizes can be combined to form a whole quantity.  For example, when skip counting by 2’s, students will be able to see that 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ends up being 5 2's combined to get 10.

Skip counting helps students identify patterns in numbers but also supports their ability to later think multiplicatively.  To facilitate this type of thinking, students can be asked to identify all the ways they can skip count to a certain number.  This will help them to identify multiples of that number and then the factors as well.

All the ways to skip count to 24:

2, 4, 6. 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 (12 , 2s)

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24  (8, 3's)

4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 (6, 4's)

6, 12, 18, 24 (4, 6's)

8, 16, 24 (3, 8's)

12, 24, (2, 12's)

Supporting Students Using Skip Counting 

There are many ways to support skip counting, as seen on the video. These include:

- Using hundred charts to mark the numbers they are skip counting by and looking at the patterns in the numbers

- Creating amounts with base 10 blocks to skip count by 1000’s, 100’s, 10’s, or 2’s to find their totals

- Money can be used to support skip counting, such as adding up tens, loonies, quarters, dimes, or nickels.

- Number lines can be used to add up in chunks to show equal groups, which may then progress to open number lines where they don’t show all the numbers on the line

- Students may build arrays and skip count along rows or columns to find the total amounts using colour tiles.  As the amounts become difficult to skip count they will split the groups into smaller groups they are more comfortable with.

Students who are using visuals, such as circles and dots, to represent their thinking can be encouraged to use 'friendly' numbers inside of their circles, rather than dots. For example, instead of drawing 4 dots, students can be encouraged to use the numerals 2 and 2 making skip counting more explicit.

Where to Next?

Once students are efficient with skip-counting, students should be encouraged to begin to use Doubling  and Using Repeated Addition.

Games/Activities to Support

Looking to learn more? Check out the recorded session!