Thursday, October 23, 2014

Using Mystery Pictures to Teach Numbers in Spanish



Numbers are tricky in another language. They are especially hard for elementary students who are still learning numbers in their native tongue. Recently, I started using hundreds chart mystery pictures to help my younger students review numbers 1-100.  It has worked out really well!

Here is how I go about it...

First, you need to find some mystery pictures already set up for you. Look at the bottom of this post for a list of resources.

I then take my mystery picture and cut off the list of colors and numbers at the bottom so the student doesn't have access to them.

With colored pencils in hand, the student listens as I call off in Spanish the color and the number. I don't go in the order listed on the page, but rather I jump around between the colors and the numbers. I use the strip with the numbers printed on it to mark off what numbers I have called. By skipping around like this it keeps it interesting for the student and keeps them guessing as to the picture. Eventually though it becomes obvious that there is a pattern emerging. When this happens I then have the student start speaking in Spanish. I will point to a box and they have to guess the color and say the number of the box in Spanish. More often than not they are right on their guesses. 

For younger students you may have to really breakdown the numbers in order for them to find them. Normally, I say the number {like 45} then I use the chart to have them count by tens to find the first part of the number. Once they find the forty we go down to the next row to look for the other number (in the ones column). The students may have to count to get there, but that is ok.  Just more practice for them!

Here are the charts I use. The first resource has the most options and includes different themes. For example the pictures in this post are of the pumpkin chart. I used this as I was doing a pumpkin unit in Spanish with my students.


And if you want to go a bit higher here are charts up to 120!

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