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Counting to ten looks simple, but it is really two skills at once. The first is reciting the number sequence — "one, two, three…" — which most children pick up quickly, often before kindergarten. The second is harder: matching exactly one number to exactly one object, in order, without skipping or counting the same one twice. A child who sings the numbers perfectly can still lose track partway through a pile of five blocks. That second skill, one-to-one correspondence, is what these worksheets practice.

Everything that comes after depends on it. Addition is counting on; subtraction is counting back; "more" and "fewer" means counting two groups and comparing the totals. A child who counts reliably has a tool that keeps working for the rest of arithmetic. A child who guesses, or recounts the same object twice, carries that gap into every later worksheet that assumes counting is already solid.

Each sheet above shows objects — apples, stars, balloons, leaves, or fish — drawn in small groups. The child counts everything in a question and writes the total in the box. "Mixed" varies the object from question to question; every other choice keeps one object throughout, so a child is never left guessing whether "how many?" means the apples, the fish, or both.

Counting to 5 and counting to 10 are genuinely different exercises, not the same page with a bigger number. Five objects fit in a single glance; ten usually don't, and a child has to develop a strategy — touching each one, moving it aside, counting in a row — to avoid losing their place. Counting to 20 is the next step once ten is solid: the groups get bigger, and keeping track matters even more. Switch "Count to" above to move between 5, 10, and 20 without anything else about the page changing.

Press New sheet until the page looks right, lock the questions you want to keep, and print. Nothing to sign up for, and the answer key prints on a second page only when you ask for it.

One number at a time, 1 to 20

A sheet for every number: trace the numeral and its word, color that many pictures, and find the number in a row.

28 ready-to-print sheets

Free PDF packGet 18 ready sheets as one PDFCounting 1 to 20: Count the pictures and write how many. To 5, 10 and 20. 24 pages with answer keys, US Letter or A4.Open the pack →

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