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Hundreds chart

A hundreds chart to play with: color the 2s, 5s or 7s and see their patterns, find hidden numbers and solve a mystery number. Print one for the fridge too.

Thena, a marble statue of a young Athena
Count in
  1. 5
  2. 10
  3. 15
  4. 20
  5. 25
  6. 30
  7. 35
  8. 40
  9. 45
  10. 50
  11. 55
  12. 60
  13. 65
  14. 70
  15. 75
  16. 80
  17. 85
  18. 90
  19. 95
  20. 100

Pick a number to count in.

Print the hundreds chart:

Patterns to spot

A hundreds chart is ten wide, so counting in any number makes a shape. Some are straight lines, some slant, and some hop about. Try them above with Count and color.

  • The 10s

    One straight column down the end: every number ending in 0.

  • The 5s

    Two columns, ending in 5 and 0. Half of them are also in the 10s.

  • The 2s

    Every other column: the even numbers.

  • The 9s

    A diagonal slanting down to the left. The tens go up as the ones go down: 18, 27, 36, 45.

  • The 3s

    Slanting lines. Add the digits of any of them and you get 3, 6 or 9 (or 12, 15, 18).

  • The 7s

    No straight lines at all: each is one row down and three squares left. That’s why the 7s take longest to learn.

When children use it

In Common Core, the hundreds chart goes with counting and place value from kindergarten to 2nd grade:

Kindergarten
Counting to 100 by ones and by tens.
1st grade
Counting to 120, and finding 10 more or 10 less than a two-digit number in their head.
2nd grade
Skip counting by 5s and 10s, and adding and subtracting within 100 using place value.

Five games for the printed one

  1. What’s under the coin?

    Cover a number with a coin. Your child works out what’s underneath from the numbers around it.

  2. Race to 100

    Take turns rolling a dice and moving a counter on that many. Land on a number in the 10s and jump down a row.

  3. Ten more, ten less

    Call a number and a direction: “34, ten more!” They point straight down to 44.

  4. Hundreds chart jigsaw

    Cut a printed one into chunky pieces and put it back together. Each piece only fits where its numbers belong.

  5. Fill the blanks

    Print the blank one and fill it in together, a row at a time. Spot what stays the same down each column.

More to try

Questions about the hundreds chart

What is a hundreds chart?

A grid of the numbers 1 to 100 in rows of ten. Each row is a new ten, so going along a row adds 1 and going down a column adds 10. It turns place value into something children can see and point at.

Should it start at 0 or 1?

Both are used in schools. 1 to 100 is the most common. A 0 to 99 grid keeps every number in a row with the same tens digit, which some teachers prefer for place value. This one runs 1 to 100, like most hundreds charts children see in class.

How do you add on a hundreds chart?

To add 23 to 45, start at 45, jump down 2 rows for the 20 (55, 65), then along 3 for the 3 (66, 67, 68). Taking away works the same way, going up and back.

What age is it for?

Mostly kindergarten to 2nd grade, while children learn to count to 100 and 120, skip count and add within 100. Older children use it to spot times table patterns.

Numbers that make sense

Thena draws place value, counting and adding on her board as she explains it, the way your child’s school teaches it.

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