Free worksheets · Kindergarten
What Number Comes Before? Counting to 50 Worksheet
Read each run of three numbers up to 50 and write the number that comes just before it on the blank line.
Free printable
What Number Comes Before? Counting to 50
12 questions, one page, US Letter. Print it and do it on paper.
On the sheet: Write the number that comes before, one lower than the first number you see.
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About this worksheet
Each of the 12 questions is a run of counting numbers with the first one missing, like ____, 36, 37, 38. The child writes the number just before. All the numbers stay within 50.
Counting back is harder than counting forward, because children say numbers forward far more often. It is the groundwork for subtraction, and runs that start on a ten, like ____, 40, 41, 42, practice stepping back to the ten before.
A worked example
____, 36, 37, 38
- Read the numbers already there: 36, 37, 38.
- Each number goes up by one, so the blank is one less than 36.
- Count back one from 36: 35.
- Write 35 on the line.
Answer: 35, 36, 37, 38
The common mistake
What it looks like: Writing the number after instead, 39, or writing 49 before 40.
Why it happens: Forward counting is the habit, and stepping back across a ten is unfamiliar.
How to fix it: Read the whole run aloud with the answer in the blank: "35, 36, 37, 38." If it doesn't sound like counting, it isn't right. For a run starting at 40, count up from 30 to find what comes just before: 38, 39, 40.
Ten minutes a day, on paper. We plan what comes next.
A printed page and a pencil. No screen, no login for your child. Snap a photo when they’re done: AI scores it, and what they missed comes back on the sheets that follow.
- Mon What Number Comes Before? Counting to 50
- Tue What they missed, back again
- Wed The next step, when they’re ready
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