Image of the Week: Skip Counting in the Real World

Skip Counting in the Real World

Last week, we shared how skip counting can be a powerful step on the journey from counting by ones to thinking in equal groups. We invited you to have students try this out with one of our dice images by asking, How many do you see? Now, we encourage you to explore this same concept using our other routine, Off You Go. In this routine, we create space for students to connect mathematical concepts to their lived experiences, in your classroom, in your school, in their homes, and in their communities. Give it a try!

Share the image above with students and tell students, This picture shows things that could be skip counted. Ask, What could you skip count in this image? How could you do it? The way this image is structured students might skip count the blocks or the buttons on top of the blocks. Skip counting by twos would be a natural option, given the arrangement of the buttons, but students might develop ways of using 4s or even finding groups of 10. The point is for students simply to notice how skip counting might be applied to this situation, one they may have seen before. 

Then, send kids off to find other things in their world that could be skip counted. Invite them to collect these items, take a picture, or make a sketch to bring back to share. As we’ve discussed before, you can use Off You Go as an in-class activity by sending your students off to your classroom, school building (skip counting floor tiles or lockers in the hallways), or even outdoors (skip counting windows or brick on your building, perhaps?). Or you can build a meaningful connection to student home lives by sending kids off to gather skip counting items from their homes, their bus rides (skip counting seats, riders, windows), or their communities. As students walk home or walk around their homes, position them to look with a mathematical lens by asking, What could I skip count here? You never really know what they might bring back!

Finally, facilitate a discussion in which students share their found items:

• How did you find your items? What made you pick this example out?
• What could you skip count in this example?
• How could you do that skip counting?

What you will end up with is a museum of skip counting and strong connections between this mathematical act and students’ lived experiences. We’d love to hear what happens! Off you go!

To multiplicity, cheers!

Jen Munson and the multiplicity lab group