Provide students with a writing utensil and pad. A mini-whiteboard and dry erase marker works great, but anything that allows students to transcribe their number and hold it up will do.

The leader will stand at the front and announce what they are counting by. Write the value for all to see. Turning their back to the players, the leader will count by their value mentally and raise a finger for each number they count. The leader will select when to stop. When students notice the leader has stopped, they must quickly write down the value and hold it up before the leader turns around. All students who have the correct number gain a point and play continues.

For example, if the leader announces they are counting by 2's and stops with 6 fingers up, students should count along by 2's to write down 12, as counting on each of the 6 fingers gives them 2-4-6-8-10-12.

After each round, announce the groups: "We found 6 groups of 2 is 12."

We recommend game-play starts with focusing only on counting by 2's, 3's, and 5's. As students get the hang of things, they can utilize their skip-skip counting to increase the difficulty. When advancing to 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10, pause for a quick round of The Whisper Game. Have students whisper "2" before raising the first finger to call out 4, before raising the second finger whisper "6" and call out 8 when the next finger is raised. This more challenging game can be played later after students have worked with our digital games Fingers and Skip Pop to gain more fluency.

Our digital game is great for independent practice. Game-play follows the same flow, but in the digital game students can watch as the computer counts out the values, reinforcing their understanding.

If students are having trouble skip counting mentally, use the digital version and allow students to continue to skip count aloud. Encourage students to use their own fingers to mimic the game. Remember we are building fluency which does require practice and exposure. However, it is important to celebrate small wins and avoid placing pressure on students. We want them to have fun. They are building their brain muscles and just like other muscles they need to exercise them!

As with all our digital games, for the best experience we recommend students select full screen mode (this can be achieved by clicking the button in the bottom right corner of the game) and utilize a device with a larger screen such as a tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.

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