A six-page moonlit concert path for finding the numbers before, after and between, up to twenty.
Honey-Beats reaches the concert meadow just as the musicians arrive, but the numbered stepping stones are scattered through the tall grass. Flutter-Butter lifts the first three back into a row while Honey taps a rhythm that should lead them to the next neighbour.
Try it: Which number comes after 3?
4. Four follows three.
The repaired path carries the first drummer forward, then stops at a gap beside the stone marked six. Honey-Beats taps a steady rhythm while Flutter-Butter counts backwards by one beat. The missing neighbour must return before the rest of the band can cross.
Try it: Which number comes before 6?
5. Five lives between four and six.
Near the flower arch, two numbered stones wait with an empty space between them. Flutter-Butter hovers over eight, then ten, while Honey-Beats listens for the beat the counting song has skipped. A xylophone player waits patiently on the bank.
Try it: Which number belongs between 8 and 10?
9. Nine is the neighbour between eight and ten.
The musicians begin crossing again, but their path curls into a confusing loop. Its number neighbours are in the correct places, yet one stepping stone points differently from the rest. Honey-Beats studies the symbols while Flutter-Butter keeps the band from following the muddled direction.
Try it: Which stone is turned the wrong way?
The reversed stone. The reversed stone was interrupting the pattern.
At the final bend, the stone marked fifteen sits alone between two muddy spaces. Flutter-Butter searches for the neighbour that belongs before it, and Honey-Beats searches for the one after it. Both are needed to reconnect the path to the concert stage.
Try it: Which pair are the neighbours of 15?
14 and 16. Fourteen and sixteen are beside fifteen.
The stage lights glow, but the last stepping-stone space is still empty after seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. Every musician waits together at the edge of the meadow. Honey-Beats begins a rising counting song, and Flutter-Butter listens for the number that will finish the path.
Try it: Which number finishes the path?
20. Twenty completes the concert path.
The number just before it and the number just after it. The neighbours of 15 are 14 and 16.
Every number found its neighbours, and every musician found the path. The meadow can sing again! SnackPack 123 Counting has more number stories, counting games and ten-frames.
Next storyLuckybug and the Market Morning Mix‑Up
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