How to make it
- Choose the stepCount by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 25s or 100s. Starts and gaps vary from line to line, so no two lines on a sheet are the same.
- Set the gapsLeave 2 to 6 missing numbers per line. Fewer gaps give more clues; more gaps make children work out the pattern themselves.
- Print the linesEight lines fill the page, one per row across its full width; print or save a PDF, with the answer key following.
What each line shows
A line runs the full width of the page with arrows at both ends, a reminder that numbers continue past what is printed. It carries eleven tick marks at equal spacing, so it spans ten steps. Most ticks are labeled; the missing ones have an empty box under them instead of a number. The first number on the left is always printed, so a child always has a starting point, and the boxes are spread at random among the other ten marks, including sometimes the last one.
The start changes from line to line. Counting by 1s, a line might begin at 0, 7 or 18; counting by 10s, at 40 or 130; counting by 100s, at 600 or 1,900. Starts are always a multiple of the step, so counting by 5s never begins at 13, and numbers of a thousand or more are printed with commas. The key fills every box in pink.
Six ways to count along the line
Counting by 1s is for children who are just learning the order of numbers past ten, especially across tricky boundaries such as 19 to 20. Counting by 2s always lands on even numbers, which is a nice moment to name even and odd. Counting by 5s supports telling time and nickels; counting by 10s builds the idea of adding a ten, so 40, 50, 60 should feel like 4, 5, 6 tens.
Counting by 25s, through 75, 100, 125, is useful for quarters and for fractions of a hundred later on, and it is where many older children slip. Counting by 100s moves place value into the hundreds and thousands, with crossings such as 900, 1,000, 1,100 that are worth saying aloud. Choose one step per sheet and stay with it for a few days before moving on.
How to find a missing number
Teach children to look for two labeled neighbors first. If the line reads 35, 40, then a box, the step is 5 and the box is 45. If the box comes between two labels, they can check from both sides: the number must be one step more than its left neighbor and one step less than its right one. When two or three boxes sit next to each other, work from the nearest label outward and check the last answer against the next printed number.
A common trap is assuming the step is 1 because the lines look similar. On a line counting by 2s starting at 14, a child who writes 15 in the first box has not looked at the pattern. Ask them to say the first three printed numbers aloud and listen for the jump before they write anything.
Talk about the spaces as well as the marks. Eleven marks make ten equal jumps, and children who count marks instead of jumps get answers that are one step out. Putting a finger on a printed number and sliding it to the next mark while saying plus five, or plus a hundred, keeps attention on the jump. Over time, children start to see the line as a ruler for numbers, which is exactly the idea behind measuring length.
Lines as a tool for adding and subtracting
Once children can label a line, they can use it to calculate. For 38 + 25 on a line counting by 1s or 5s, start at 38, hop forward 2 to reach 40, then 20 to reach 60, then 3 more to 63; drawing each hop as an arc above the line makes the thinking visible. For subtraction, hop backwards, or find the distance between two numbers by hopping up from the smaller one, which many children find easier than taking away.
The generator does not print sums alongside the lines, but any printed line can carry a few hop problems you write in the margin. When the hops become automatic, move on to written methods with addition worksheets and subtraction worksheets. Until then, children who lose count crossing a ten can practice those jumps on a printed line, writing each hop as an arc above it.
Choosing settings by grade
US and Canadian sheets (those that open on Letter) show CCSS 2.MD.B.6 in the footer, the second-grade standard for showing whole numbers as lengths on a number line with equally spaced points and using it for sums and differences. The code stays the same for 25s and 100s, whose lines run into the thousands, well past the sums within 100 that standard describes. Younger children use the same sheets well: kindergarten and first-grade classes can count by 1s with two or three missing numbers, and first graders often count by 10s. Second grade covers 2s, 5s, 10s and 100s. The 25s are a good stretch for third and fourth graders.
In England, Year 1 pupils typically count in 2s, 5s and 10s, Year 2 adds steps of 3 and counting in tens from any number, Year 3 includes multiples of 50 and 100, and Year 4 brings multiples of 25 and 1,000. Australian classes usually skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s in Years 1 and 2 and extend to larger steps from Year 3. To see the same counting patterns across a whole hundred at once, a hundreds chart lays them out in rows and columns, and it pairs well with these lines.
| Count by | Missing per line | US grade | England | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1s | 2 to 3 | Kindergarten to grade 1 | Year 1 | Foundation to Year 1 |
| 2s, 5s, 10s | 3 to 4 | Grade 1 to grade 2 | Year 1 to Year 2 | Year 1 to Year 2 |
| 100s | 4 to 5 | Grade 2 | Year 3 | Year 2 to Year 3 |
| 25s | 4 to 6 | Grade 3 to grade 4 | Year 4 | Year 3 to Year 4 |
Checking, common slips and sheet length
The pink key shows only the missing numbers, printed in the boxes, so checking is quick. Typical slips are a wrong step size, losing count across a hundred or a thousand (writing 1,000, 2,000 after 900 on a line counting by 100s), adding 20 instead of 25 when counting by quarters, and copying the neighbor rather than counting on. If a child gets a whole line wrong in the same way, the step was misread; if one box is wrong, it is usually a boundary like 95 to 100.
Eight lines, the default, make a full page. For a warm-up, print three or four lines with two gaps each. For practice, eight lines with four gaps. For a check, ten to twelve lines with five or six gaps; anything past eight or nine lines continues on a second page. A New variant gives different starts and gaps at the same step.
Questions
Can I make a number line to 100?
Each line spans ten steps, so to cover 0 to 100 choose Count by 10s; a line that starts at 0 then runs to 100. Starts vary between lines, so some will cover other stretches, such as 60 to 160. Counting by 1s, each line shows eleven consecutive numbers somewhere between 0 and 30.
Can the number lines show negative numbers or fractions?
No. Lines always start at zero or a positive multiple of the step, and every label is a whole number. Fraction work lives on the fraction worksheets page, which uses numbers rather than lines. For negative numbers, extend a printed line to the left by hand.
Can I print a blank number line?
Every line has at least five printed numbers, since the most you can hide is six of the eleven marks, and the first number is always shown. For a completely blank line to label yourself, draw one with a ruler on squared paper, one mark every few squares.
How do you use a number line for addition?
Start at the first number and hop forward by the second, often in friendly jumps: for 38 + 25, hop 2 to 40, 20 to 60 and 3 to 63. Draw each hop as an arc. For subtraction, hop backwards, or count up from the smaller number to the larger one.
What grade uses number lines?
Number lines appear from kindergarten, but in the US they are a named part of second-grade measurement, CCSS 2.MD.B.6, shown in the footer of US sheets. In England and Australia counting in steps along a line is typical from Year 1, with larger steps such as 25s and 100s in Years 3 and 4.
Does the answer key show the whole line?
The key reprints every line with the missing numbers filled in, in pink, so the numbers the child had to find stand out from the printed ones. It follows the worksheet in the same PDF and carries the same sheet number, and the Answer key PDF button saves it on its own.
Common Core State Standards: © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.