Hundreds Chart

Print one copy per child and tape another at desk height. Run a two-minute warm-up: point to a number and have the child say the next five. Then try skip counting by 2s, 5s or 10s, coloring each landing spot with a crayon. Laminate a copy for dry-erase marker. Keep the 1 to 120 option for kids who already count past 100. For a self-check, the answer key page shows the finished chart. Write online lets a child circle numbers on a tablet.

The chart makes place value visible. Moving down one row always adds 10, moving right adds 1, and every number in a column ends in the same digit. Children usually stumble at the end of a row, where the last number of one row is followed by a multiple of ten on the next line, not by a repeat of the row's digits. Before this chart comes counting objects to 20. After it come adding and subtracting tens, and then 3-digit numbers.

Choose 1 to 100 for kindergarten and first grade, and 1 to 120 once a class counts past 100. Filled is the reference copy. Switch to Blank when the child can write the sequence, and to Missing numbers for a quick check. One variation: cover the chart with a sheet of paper and ask what is ten more than a number you name before peeking.

How do I teach skip counting with this chart?

Color or circle every second, fifth or tenth number and read the colored ones aloud. The pattern jumps out: 5s land in two columns, 10s in one. Do one skip value per day so each pattern sticks.

Why do some children think 30 comes after 20 in the same row?

They have not yet linked the end of a row to the start of the next. Trace the row break with a finger while counting, and point out the shaded tens cell closing each row.

Which size should a first grader use?

Use 1 to 100 first. Switch to 1 to 120 when counting past 100 comes up in class, since the extra rows only add the 100s without changing the pattern.