Backwards Dot to Dot: Count Down from 10 to 1

The count runs the other way on this Kindergarten dot-to-dot. Dot 10 wears the orange ring, and from there the pencil travels to 9, then 8, then 7, all the way down to a single dot 1 near the foot of the panel. Only ten dots are numbered; the remainder of the shape is already printed in soft grey, so ten lines are enough to close a whole picture. The counting strip along the bottom of the page reads 10, 9, 8 and on down to 1 in that order, which is the only place on the sheet the backwards sequence is written out.

Counting down is a separate piece of knowledge from counting up, and a child who can rattle off one to twenty will often stall somewhere around seven, six. Here the pencil cannot move until the next number has been said, so the sequence gets rehearsed ten times without anyone calling it practice. Because most of the outline is already drawn, a wrong turn announces itself: the line cuts across the figure instead of following it. What a teacher learns by watching is where the pauses fall. The step from 10 to 9 and the crossing of five are the two places the count usually catches, and both are visible from behind the shoulder.

Print the PDF free and ask for a spoken countdown from ten before the pencil touches the paper, then let the finished shape be colored in. Ten numbered dots make a short run, which suits a child who has forwards counting to ten secure and is meeting the reverse for the first time. The dot to dot 1-10 page is the same short count going the other way. When ten backwards is easy, count back from 20 removes the printed outline and doubles the distance.