Skip it to multiply it

Each of the following sessions is designed to take 20 to 25 minutes. These series of session can be used in whole class or small group situations.  The first session develops students’ ability to skip count in a variety of ways.

Session 1 – Skip Counting

1. Begin by counting in twos.  Get students to slap their knees and whisper the number 1.  Then get them to push their arms out to the side (or click fingers) and say 2 in a bigger voice.  Continue the sequence 1 (whisper) 2 (big voice) 3 (whisper) 4 (big voice) etc. 
2. Choose different odd numbers to start from.  Don’t always start from 1. 
   Encourage the students to continue counting while you record the numbers they are saying in a loud voice on the board.  Then stop and talk about the number sequence and the patterns they can see. 
   What can you tell me about the big voice numbers?
   What patterns can you see?
3. Tie a weighted object to a piece of string and swing it from side to side.  Get the students to count as the pendulum swings. Then omit the odd numbers. This will enable the students to focus on counting in twos.
4. Challenge students to see if they can count backwards in twos from 10.
5. Counting circles - put students in different sized groups up to five.  Each group sits in a circle.  Students count around the circle, one student has a piece of paper, when the counting reaches the student with the piece of paper they record the number they say in a sequence.  Students continue to count around the circle.  Get the students to bring their recording sheets back to share with the whole class.
   What patterns did you see?
   Whose pattern is like yours?
6. Use puppets - have 2, 3, 4 or 5 puppets, students come to the front of the class and count using the puppets.  E.g. Using 3 puppets - puppet 1 says 1, puppet 2 says 2, puppet 3 says 3, puppet 1 says 4, puppet 2 says 5, …
   What do you think puppet 2 is going to say when it his turn next?
   What will she say the next turn?
7. Encourage students to count up and predict.

Session 2- Horses and Stables

1. Begin the session by choosing one of the skip-counting activities from Session 1 as a warm up exercise.
2. Seat students in a circle.  Place four ice cream containers upside down in the middle of the circle.  Here are four horse stables.
3. Now place two horses under each stable. 
   There are two horses in each stable, how many horses are there altogether?
4. Give the students some time to think about the problem.  Encourage students to share their answers and come into the circle to demonstrate what they did.
   Try to record their responses e.g.  Tom went 1 2, 3 4, 5 6, 7 8, and Heme went 2, 4, 6, 8.
5. Continue to pose several other similar problems.
   Now there are 3 stables at John’s farm down the road.  He has 3 horses in each stable how many horse are there altogether?
6. Encourage students to explain how they got their answer. 
7. Pair up students and give them a series of counters to represent horses and some ice cream containers, or cups to represent stables.  The students take turns to hide the same number of horses under each stable while their partner hides their eyes or turns around.  When the student turns back, their partner says "There are 2 horses under each of these stables.  How many are there altogether?"  Their partner then has to work out how many horses there are altogether.

Session 3 – Fish in Fishponds

1. Start the session by choosing one of the skip-counting activities from Session 1 as a warm up exercise.
2. Set up the scenario for this session by seating the students in a large circle. In the middle of the circle make 3 fishponds using three pieces of string joined up to make them look like a ponds.  Give each student 1 fish (copymaster 1). 
3.  Ask four students to put their fish in one of the ponds, then another four students to put their fish in another pond.  Continue until all the ponds have four fish. 
   How many fish are there altogether?
   How can we work it out without having to count all the fish?
4. Talk about how you might be able to work it out without individually counting each fish.  Give the students some time to work the answer out and then encourage individuals to share their strategies.
   Did anyone do it a different way?
5. Choose 3 students to be fisher people.  And ask them to fish a fish out of each pond. 
   Is there a quick way to work out how many fish there are left?
6. Continue to pose similar problems.  Increase the number of ponds and the number of fish put in each pond.
7. Copymaster 2 is an activity sheet with further pond and fish problems.  Those students that are confident and are solving the problems with success can complete the sheet, while those who require extra assistance can remain on the mat to go over more problems with the teacher.

Session 4 – Flowers and Petals.

1. Begin the session by repeating a skip-counting activity from Session 1.

2. Each student makes a flower with 5 petals on an A4 piece of paper.  (You will need to have cut out multiple petals, or provide equipment such as counters, to enable the students to stick them onto their sheet of paper. Alternatively a counter can be used as the centre of the flower and pop sticks can be placed around the counter as petals.  Cellotape could be used so that the counters and pop sticks can be re-used) The students need to stick down the petals because they will need to move around the room with their flower.

3. Once students have completed their flower put students in pairs.
   How many petals are there on two flowers?

4. Talk about the ways students worked out how many altogether.

5. Now join two pairs together with their flowers.
   How many petals are there altogether now? 
   Can you work this out without having to count all the petals?

6. Use the students’ fingers to model 5 + 5 = 10 and in pairs 10 and 10 more = 20. For a challenge, see if the student can work out how many petals there are in two groups of two pairs (8 students in all).  Check this by modelling using a group’s flowers and skip-counting.

7. Encourage students to predict before they get together in different sized groups. 
   How many petals on 5 flowers (students get into groups of 5)?

Session 5

Use the following contexts to create more multiple counting problems.  Remember to challenge the students to think of quick ways to solve the problems.  Try to encourage them not to count by ones.

1. Fingers and toes - "How many toes in a group of 3 people?" "How many fingers and toes do you have?"
2. Caterpillars and legs – Use pegs as legs for caterpillars.  How many legs are there altogether on 6 caterpillars if they each have 2 legs?" (Copymaster 3)
3. Ask the students to create their own skip counting problems.  Share these with the class.