Playdate 19: Skip counting by 2’s
Playdate focus
Have fun skip counting by 2’s with your child. It’s a fun and fast way to count that helps them see numbers in a new way.
Storybook properties
This has skip counting along with shapes and comparisons.
Activities properties
These involve number shapes (to practice pairing things up for skip counting) and making symmetric shapes.
It’s fast and fun
Show your child that this is a fun way of counting that goes a lot more quickly than counting by 1’s. If you pair things up and then skip count them by 2’s, you will reinforce how paired things come in twos.
Getting started with skip counting
Introduce skip counting in two ways. One way is to take turns with your child as you count up to some number, alternating numbers as you go – one of you will be skip counting starting at 0, and the other will be starting at 1. After some practice, one of you stays silent and the other one counts as before, saying every other number.
The other way for your child to get used to skip counting is to count up to some number normally the first time. Then do that counting again by saying every other number softly. Continue this practice until the softly-spoken numbers are not spoken at all.
Start at numbers other than 0
It is tempting to always start at 0. However, if you start at other numbers, such as 1, you will be helping your child with adding skills as well as multiplying and dividing skills.
Skip count downwards sometimes
Skip counting downwards helps with subtracting skills and with dividing skills.