Skip Counting by 10s Resources

Approaching numbers from many directions is one of the ways we teach children and early learners number sense. One approach that is commonly taught is skip counting by tens.
While it may seem arbitrary, skip counting by tens has a number of benefits for students. It allows them to see patterns in numbers. When counting the whole tens (10, 20, 30…) they see that the first digit of each number is the same as when they simply count to ten and the second digit of each number is zero.
Understanding this pattern will allow them to count by tens without even when they start with a number that is not a multiple of ten. If they understand that only the first digit changes, they will understand that regardless of what number they start with, the digit in the ones place will not change.
Skip counting by tens also lays the foundation for early multiplication. When students understand that the fifth number you reach when skip counting by ten is fifty, and five times ten is fifty, they can expand on that concept to find other products when multiplying by ten.
Using a 100s chart is one way to help students identify the patterns. They will see that, if each row in the chart has 10 digits, regardless of where they start, skip counting will just be counting down each column.
Practicing with the resources provided above by Education.com may help students learn to skip count by tens consistently and gain a foundation in number sense that teachers can build on in the future.