Missing Numbers on a Number Line: Count On from the Nearest Label

This 1st grade number-lines worksheet shows four number lines from 0 to 20, one per card, with labels only at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 and a tick mark for every number between. On each line three orange arrows point down at unlabeled ticks, and above every arrow floats an empty dashed box. The child finds the nearest printed label, counts on tick by tick to the arrow, and writes the number it points to in the box. Twelve arrows across the page, no two pointing at the same number.

A number line with every number printed is a ruler; a number line with only landmarks is a tool for thinking. To name the tick after 15 the child has to know that the labels go up by five, count the ticks in between, and decide whether to count on from 15 or back from 20 — the same reasoning that later makes rounding and estimation possible. The page keeps the ticks large and the arrows well separated so counting is never the obstacle. A teacher watching the pencil can see whether the child starts every count from zero, which works but is slow, or from the nearest landmark, which is the skill the page exists to build.

Print the PDF free and have the child write the landmark they counted from beside each box the first time. The easier version uses lines from 0 to 10 with two arrows each; the harder version stretches the line to 100 with labels every ten and ticks every five, so counting on means counting by fives. The number of the day page includes one of these lines among its boxes, and the doubles and halves page and the number walls page are where the numbers the child just located get added.