Counting to 50

🎯 What You'll Learn

You will learn to count all the way from 1 to 50, using market inventory as practice.

🏪 Market Story

Bola's mother sells tomatoes at Oyingbo Market. Every morning, she counts her tomatoes to know how many she has. Today, Bola helps her count. They touch each tomato: "1, 2, 3..." all the way to "...48, 49, 50." Bola's mother smiles and says, "We have 50 tomatoes today. That's a good number!"

📝 Let's Learn

After 20, counting follows a pattern. Each group of ten has the same ending: twenty-ONE, twenty-TWO, twenty-THREE... just like ONE, TWO, THREE.

The tens are: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.

Between each ten, you count: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, then 30. Then 31, 32, 33... and so on.

Example 1: Count from 28 to 35: 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. Notice how 30 is the next "tens" number.

Example 2: What comes after 39? The answer is 40. After every 9, the next number is a new ten.

Example 3: Chidi counts peppers: he reaches 45. He counts 3 more: 46, 47, 48. He has 48 peppers.

✏️ Practice Questions

1. What number comes after 29?
2. Count from 36 to 42. How many numbers did you say?
3. Funke counted 43 oranges in the morning. She got 5 more in the afternoon. What number does she reach when she keeps counting?

Click to see answers

1. After 29 comes 30.
2. 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 — you said 7 numbers.
3. Funke reaches 48. She counts: 44, 45, 46, 47, 48.

💡 Remember

Counting to 50 follows a pattern: after every 9, a new tens number begins (10, 20, 30, 40, 50). Learn the pattern and you can count anything!