Set out four plates with six cherries on each, and a seven-year-old will probably count every cherry, one by one, all the way to twenty-four. That works, but there is a smarter way to see it. This 2nd grade count the groups worksheet trains that second look. Five models fill the page, each made of blue circles holding the same number of items: cherries, bananas, stars, strawberries and pineapples. Under each model, your child completes one sentence: the model has so many equal groups with so many items in each group. That sentence is the bridge to multiplication. A second page gives the answer key.