LESSON PLAN

Skip-Counting and Number Patterns

Apothem Team

Grade 1 · Number

LESSON AT A GLANCE

Warm-up

5 min

Explore

15 min

Consolidate

10 min

Practice

12 min

Exit ticket

3 min

Warm-up

Count with me by 2s! Whole class: 2, 4, 6, 8 ... 20. Do it with movements: clap on each number, stomp on every 10th. What patterns did we find? When did everyone stomp?

Explore

Students colour multiples of 2 in yellow on their hundred chart, then multiples of 5 in blue. Ask: What do you notice? Are any squares both yellow and blue? What does that mean? The overlap squares (multiples of 10) generate rich discussion.

Consolidate

Practice

Students complete a hundred chart colouring activity (multiples of 10 in red) then describe the pattern in words. Exit ticket: count by 5s starting from 15. Write the next 5 numbers.

Exit ticket

Students complete a hundred chart colouring activity (multiples of 10 in red) then describe the pattern in words. Exit ticket: count by 5s starting from 15. Write the next 5 numbers.

TIP Use the hundred chart to show, not just tell. Having students colour their own hundred chart and then describe what they see generates far deeper pattern reasoning than colouring one the teacher prepared.

WORKED EXAMPLES

A student skip-counts by 5s correctly but cannot explain the pattern. How do you help?

Ask them to circle each number on the hundred chart. What do all these numbers have in common? They end in 5 or 0. If I gave you a large number ending in 5, would it be in our sequence? Building from pattern observation to prediction is the goal.

When skip-counting by 2s starting from 3: 3, 5, 7, 9. A student thinks this is the same pattern as starting from 0. Is it?

Same gap (2), different starting point. These are odd numbers, not even numbers. The hundred chart shows they land on the squares NOT coloured when counting from 0. Both are valid skip-counts by 2, but they produce different sets of numbers.

MATERIALS

•Hundred charts (one per student plus class display)

•Crayons in 3 colours

•Linking cubes for grouping

•Number lines 0-30

WATCH FOR

!Students may know the skip-counting sequence by rote but lose their place when starting from a non-zero number. Practice starting from 4, 12, 7.

!Students may not connect skip-counting to equal groups. Use linking cubes in equal groups and count by touching each group to build the physical-to-abstract connection.