We Need to Hurry and Skip Count

Scripture: Genesis 31-33

Learning Objectives:

  • Students will review the story of Jacob leaves and reunites with Esau, focusing especially on Jacob organizing his family and gifts before encountering Esau.
  • Students will learn that although the bible doesn’t say, Jacob or his servants may have used skip counting to quickly count things they were organizing.
  • Students will learn and or review how to skip count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
  • Students will participate in an activity to help them practice skip counting

Guiding Question: How can skip counting help us count a large number of items quickly?

Materials: Beads – plain inexpensive pony beads or beads shaped like sheep.

Procedure: Review the story of Jacob leaves and reunites with Esau, focusing especially on Jacob organizing his family and gifts before encountering Esau. Explain that even though the bible doesn’t mention it, Jacob or his servants might have used skip counting to help count some items more quickly. Teach and or review how to skip count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to 100.

Give each student a large number of beads. Have them count the number of beads using skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and then check by counting one by one. Remind students when using skip counting, they may sometimes have a few extra items. They should begin counting with the last skip counting number. Each remaining bead will add one to the total. Have the students exchange piles of beads and continue practice skip counting.

search previous next tag category expand menu location phone mail time cart zoom edit close