Count by Fives Dot to Dot: 5, 10, 15 up to 50

Fifty is reached in ten steps on this 2nd grade dot-to-dot page. Ten dots stand in the cream panel labelled 5, 10, 15 and so on to 50, with the 5 ringed in orange, and the rest of the figure is already drawn in pale grey so the finished picture closes properly at the end of a short count. Some figures carry a small printed detail or two of their own. The strip below the panel lists the fives in circles, 5 through 50, which is a multiplication table for a child who does not yet know it is one.

Second grade is the year skip counting by fives is expected to be fluent, and the difference between a chant and a usable sequence is what a page like this exposes. Saying five, ten, fifteen in a rhythm takes no thought; finding 35 among ten scattered labels after saying it is a different act, and the pencil cannot move until it has been done. The fives are also the friendliest of the skip counts, because every number ends in a five or a zero, and that alternation is a pattern a child can notice for themselves here. Ask what all the numbers have in common once the picture is finished.

Print the PDF free and cover the counting strip with a strip of paper for the second half of the picture, to see whether the fives hold without it. The picture can be coloured afterwards, and a child who has finished quickly can be asked to say the count backwards. Count by twos is the smaller step in the same shape, count by tens is the larger one, and number line to 50 counting in fives puts the same sequence on a ruled line instead of a picture.