Count by Twos Dot to Dot: 2, 4, 6 up to 20

Every dot on this 1st grade dot-to-dot page carries an even number. Ten of them sit in the cream panel, labelled 2, 4, 6 and on up to 20, with 2 ringed in orange where the pencil starts; the rest of the figure is already printed in pale grey, so ten lines complete the picture. Along the foot of the page the twos are set out in circles, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, which makes the strip a small table the child can read from before hunting for the next dot.

Skip counting is usually learned as a chant, and a chant is easy to say and hard to use. Here the sequence has to do a job: after 12 comes 14, and 14 has to be located among nine other numbers before any line can be drawn. That is the difference between reciting the twos and knowing them, and it is why a picture checks the work better than a column of blanks would, since a missed step leaves a line running visibly across the shape. Watch for the child who counts silently up in ones from 12 to reach 14. It is not an error, but it is the habit the twos exist to replace.

Print the PDF free and ask for the numbers to be read aloud on the way round, since hearing the twos land in rhythm is most of the point. The picture can be colored in afterwards. If the count is not yet secure, dot to dot 1-20 puts every number back on the page. Counting by fives and counting by tens carry the same idea into longer steps, and number line to 50 counting in fives shows those bigger cousins on a ruled line instead of a picture.