1st Grade Skip Count Up and Down Worksheet: Fill the Paths

Most six-year-olds can chant 10, 20, 30 with ease, yet ask them to start at 95 and count by fives, and the chant falls apart. The step is the real lesson. This 1st grade skip count up and down worksheet draws six winding paths, each dotted with numbered circles and empty ones. The top three paths count up, for example 28, 30 and then a gap before 34. The bottom three count down, such as 120, 118, 116. No path says whether it moves by 2, 5 or 10, so your child works out the step from the numbers already there. A second page gives the answer key.

Why finding the step comes first

Skip counting is counting in equal jumps. It prepares adding the same amount again and again, and later multiplication. However, a chant learned by heart only works from zero.

This page asks for something stronger. Your child must compare two given numbers, such as 105 and 110, and ask how far apart they are. That gap is the rule for the whole path.

The paths also run in both directions. Counting back by tens from 120 is harder than counting up, because the number words go against habit. Then the same jumps of ten show up again, simply reversed. So counting up and down on one page shows that a step works both ways. Small idea, big reach.

At the table: the 120 to 106 path

Before writing anything, ask your child to point to two numbers side by side on a path. Say, "How much bigger is this one?"

The second path in the bottom half is the likely trap. It starts at 120 and ends at 106, with 116 and 112 given. Many children assume a big number means tens, then write 110. If that happens, tap 116 and 112 and ask, "What jump goes from one to the other?"

The path from 10 to 80 is different. Some children try fives, since 50 sits in the middle. Ask them to test their idea on the next circle.

Finally, read a finished path aloud, so the rhythm of counting by twos or by tens becomes audible.

Jumps on the board and in the kitchen

The front door is a good place to begin, since shoes come in pairs. Count them by twos as you line them up. Also, count coins in fives, or line up spoons in groups of ten and count them as you tap each group.

A board game helps with the up and down. Chutes and Ladders has a board numbered 1 to 100, so you can climb a ladder and count the jump, then slide down and count back. While you play, ask how many squares a move covered.

Counting by fives on fingers works too: hold up one hand at a time. Once the page is complete, check the missing numbers with the answer key. Then name the effort: "You found the jump on every path."