Counting Backward from 50

🎯 What You'll Learn

You will learn to count backward from 50, including how to cross over tens boundaries (like going from 40 to 39).

🏪 Market Story

Bola is helping her auntie who sells bread. Her auntie baked 50 loaves of agege bread this morning. As customers buy bread throughout the day, Bola counts backward to track how many are left. After the first customer buys 3 loaves, Bola counts back: "50... 49, 48, 47. We have 47 loaves left, Auntie!"

📝 Let's Learn

Counting backward from 50 follows the same pattern as counting forward, just reversed.

The tricky parts are crossing tens: ...41, 40, 39... and ...31, 30, 29... After a tens number, the next number backward ends in 9.

Example 1: Count backward from 50 to 44: 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44.

Example 2: Count backward from 33 to 27: 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27. Notice how we crossed 30!

Example 3: Start at 42 and count back 8: 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34. We crossed 40 on the way back.

✏️ Practice Questions

1. Count backward from 35 to 29. What numbers do you say?
2. Start at 50 and count back 12. What number do you land on?
3. Amina has 45 mangoes. She sells 9. Count backward to find how many remain.

Click to see answers

1. You say: 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29.
2. You land on 38. Count back 12 from 50: 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38.
3. Amina has 36 mangoes. Count back 9 from 45: 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36.

💡 Remember

When counting backward past a tens number (like 40 or 30), the number just before it always ends in 9 (39, 29). Practice crossing these tens boundaries until it feels easy!