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Skip Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s

A clear introduction to skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, showing the repeating number patterns, number line models, and practice examples students need.

Introduction

Skip counting means counting forward by the same amount each time instead of counting by ones. Rather than saying every number in order, you jump over some numbers and land only on numbers that follow a repeating pattern. Skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s are the three most useful patterns to learn first, because they show up everywhere: counting pairs of shoes, counting money in nickels or dimes, and counting quickly to large numbers.

Skip counting builds directly on the skills learned when counting to 100 with numbers and when counting to 100 with objects, but it trades "one at a time" counting for a faster, patterned way of counting.

Skip counting by 2s

When you skip count by 2s, you add 2 each time. Starting at 0, the pattern is: \(0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, \dots\). Every number in this list is an even number. A quick way to check the pattern is to look at the last digit of each number, it repeats in the cycle 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and then starts over.

Number line showing skip counting by 2s from 0 to 20.

Skip counting by 2s is a fast way to count things that naturally come in pairs, such as shoes, gloves, or wheels on a bicycle. If you see 8 shoes lined up in pairs, you can count "2, 4, 6, 8" instead of counting each shoe one by one.

Skip counting by 5s

When you skip count by 5s, you add 5 each time. Starting at 0, the pattern is: \(0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, \dots\). Notice that every number in this pattern ends in either 0 or 5. This pattern makes counting nickels (worth 5 cents each) or counting by hands of five fingers very quick.

Number line showing skip counting by 5s from 0 to 25.

A helpful trick is to think of clock minutes: each number on a clock face is 5 minutes apart, so reading the minutes on a clock is really just skip counting by 5s.

Skip counting by 10s

When you skip count by 10s, you add 10 each time. Starting at 0, the pattern is: \(0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, \dots\). Here the ones digit always stays 0, and only the tens digit changes, going up by 1 each time. This connects closely to the idea of benchmarks to 100, since the multiples of 10 act as helpful landmarks when counting or estimating.

Number line showing skip counting by 10s from 0 to 50.

Skip counting by 10s is one of the fastest ways to count a large group, such as counting fingers in a classroom (10 fingers per student) or counting stacks of ten objects.

Comparing the three patterns

The table below lines up the first few steps of each pattern so you can see how quickly each one grows.

Worked example

Suppose there are 6 bags, and each bag has 5 apples. Instead of counting all the apples one at a time, skip count by 5s six times: \(5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30\). There are 30 apples in total.

Now suppose you have 40 cents made only of dimes. Since each dime is worth 10 cents, skip count by 10s until you reach 40: \(10, 20, 30, 40\). That took only 4 jumps, showing 4 dimes make 40 cents.

Tips for practicing skip counting

Start each pattern from 0 until it feels automatic, then practice starting from a different number, such as skip counting by 2s starting at 4: \(4, 6, 8, 10, \dots\). Saying the pattern out loud, clapping on each number, or marking jumps on a number line all help the pattern stick. Once skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s feels comfortable, it becomes much easier to keep building number sense while counting to 100 with visual aids.

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