From counting to times tables
Skip counting builds the patterns children later need for multiplication and division. When it is fluent, move on to the multiplication worksheets.Provincial curriculum links
- BC Grade 1Skip-counting by 2s and 5s, with numbers to 20.
- BC Grade 2Skip-counting by 2, 5 and 10 from different starting points, forward and backward.
- BC Grade 3Skip-counting by any number from any starting point, related to multiplication.
- ON Grade 3The × 2, × 5 and × 10 facts, with related division facts.
The patterns here start at different multiples, which matches BC’s Grade 2 focus on different starting points. Counting backward is part of BC Grade 2 too: have students read a finished row from right to left.
Canadian coins make the steps concrete, and quarters add a step the sheets don’t: counting by 25s links to BC Grade 2’s benchmarks of 25, 50 and 100. In Ontario, fluent counting by 2s, 5s and 10s leads straight into the Grade 3 facts.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (Grades 1–3) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
