Skip counting chart

What the shading shows

Counting by 2s shades every other column, five stripes down the page. Counting by 5s shades two columns, the 5s and the 10s. Counting by 10s shades the last column only. Counting by 3s is the interesting one: the shaded cells run in diagonals, because 3 does not divide 10, and a child who works out why has understood something real about the number system.

Four charts on one page let a child compare the patterns side by side, which is more useful than one chart at a time: the 5s pattern sits inside the 10s pattern, and every shaded cell on the 4s chart is also shaded on the 2s chart.

Using it in 1st and 2nd grade

First grade counts by 2s, 5s and 10s to 100; 2nd grade adds 3s and counts within 1000. Say the shaded numbers aloud while tapping them, then cover the chart and count on from a shaded number in the middle. The second and third option sets are for 3rd graders starting multiplication, where the 6s to 9s charts show the multiples they are about to learn as facts.