What is on this worksheet
Twos, fives and tens can be chanted. Threes, fours, sixes, sevens, eights and nines cannot, and that is why they get their own sheet. A child filling these rows is doing repeated addition with numbers that cross into the next ten partway along, which is where skip counting stops being a song and starts being arithmetic. Sevens are the hardest row here and usually the last to become automatic, which matches the seven times table being the one most children find slowest.
How to use it
Print the sheet and complete each row so it keeps counting by the step named at the start. These steps do not have the easy rhythm of twos and fives, so working the addition out is expected.
Three ways to practice
Start with the row you know
Threes and fours come first for most children. Completing an easier row builds the habit of adding the same amount each time before the sevens and eights demand it.
Look for the pattern in nines
Write the nines row out and read the digits. The tens climb while the ones fall, all the way to ninety. Finding that yourself is more useful than being handed the times table.
Race the same row twice
Fill one row, then print the sheet again and time the same step. Repeating the identical task and getting faster is how a fact moves from worked out to known.
A tip worth knowing
Counting by nines has a pattern worth pointing out: the tens digit goes up by one and the ones digit goes down by one every time. Eighteen, twenty seven, thirty six. Once a child sees it they rarely lose it.
Printing this sheet
Frequently asked questions
Which step is hardest?
Sevens, for almost every child, followed by eights. Neither lands on friendly numbers and neither has a digit pattern to lean on, so they come down to practice rather than a trick.
Is this the same as learning times tables?
It is the same numbers approached differently. Skip counting builds the sequence forward one step at a time, while a times table asks for any fact on demand. Children usually need both.
My child adds instead of recalling. Is that a problem?
No, it is the expected stage. Adding the step each time is correct arithmetic and doing it repeatedly is what turns it into recall. Speed arrives on its own with enough repetition.