Skip counting: the bridge to multiplication

Updated 2026-07-08 · MathSheetLab guides

What skip counting really is

Counting by 2s, 5s or 10s is the matching times table said in order: the fives count is the five times table. A child who can say 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 already knows the first five facts in row five of the multiplication chart, so show them where those numbers sit.

Practice it where you can see it

On a hundreds chart, shade every second cell and the evens paint five stripes down the grid; every fifth cell paints two clean columns; every tenth, one column. Those patterns show a child that each skip count follows the layout of the grid, so it can be worked out rather than memorized. (The coloring itself is fun enough that kids don’t notice the drill.)

The progression

10s first (easiest — the right-hand column), then 5s, then 2s. After those: 3s on the chart, which paint a diagonal-ish pattern that takes more attention to see — good. By the time 3s are fluent, announce the secret: "you’ve been doing your times tables all along", and move to the multiplication chart where the same counts live in rows.