Why does the teacher review skip counting on a number line before teaching multiplication?

The teacher reviews skip counting on a number line before teaching multiplication primarily to connect prior knowledge to new concepts. Skip counting is a foundational skill that directly relates to multiplication; it reinforces the idea of repeated addition, which is essentially what multiplication represents.

By using a number line to practice skip counting, students visualize the process of counting in groups, which lays the groundwork for understanding multiplication as taking a certain number of groups of an amount. This connection helps students make sense of multiplication in a concrete way, allowing them to build on what they already know and transition smoothly into comprehending multiplication concepts. By establishing this link early on, students are better equipped to grasp the abstract nature of multiplication when it is formally introduced.