Contributor: Danielle Childers. Lesson ID: 10253
Skip Counting is not a way to avoid learning your numbers; it's a way to extend patterns! Learn how to skip count using number charts, videos, and games to understand pattern extension!
Use what you learned from the song and look at the number line below to tell what is the next number in this pattern: 2, 4, 6, ?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
It helps to write down the number line and circle each number in the pattern. Circle the 2, then the 4, and then the 6. Does that help you see the pattern? What number would be next?
If you said “8,” you are correct. What number would be circled after the 8?
The answer is “10.” Read out loud the circled numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
Great, you just skip counted! When you skip count you do just that: you skip certain numbers while you are counting.
Skip counting is a specific type of pattern. When you find the skip counting pattern, you can count objects faster.
For example, if you have a bunch of flowers like in the picture below, you can count each one, or you can make a pattern by just counting every other number.
Watch this video on skip counting to get more practice:
Can you find the pattern of the colored numbers below?
Repeat the pattern in colors first: white, white, yellow, white, white, yellow. Every third number is colored in, so this is called skip counting by 3s.