🐸 Counting in Steps: Twos, Fives and Tens

Hello! Today we will learn a quick way to count: counting in steps. We jump the same amount every time: in twos, in fives and in tens.

There are 5 pairs of socks. Socks come in twos. Instead of counting one by one, let’s count in twos: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. That is 10 socks altogether!

Now let’s hop along the number line in twos. The frog started at 0: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. Each hop, the number goes up by 2.

We can count backwards too. There are 6 pairs of shoes, so 12 shoes. Each time a pair leaves, the number goes down by 2: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0.

Now for some stars! We made groups of five. Each group has 5 stars. Let’s count in fives: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

On a 100 square, when we count in fives, the coloured squares line up in columns. The last digit is always 5 or 0. When we count in tens, the last digit is always 0: 10, 20, 30.

We tied the sticks into bundles of ten. One bundle has 10 sticks, that is 1 ten. Let’s count in tens: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50. The last digit is always 0!

In a number sequence, the rule is to go up or down by the same amount each step. 12, 14, 16, 18: it goes up by 2 each time, so the next number is 20. 45, 40, 35, 30: it goes down by 5 each time, so the next number is 25.

Counting in steps means jumping the same amount every time: in twos, in fives, in tens. We can count forwards and backwards. If you find the rule, you can carry the sequence on. Now try it in Pattern Train!