Take this number master copy and run as many copies as the number of students in your largest class. Make a transparency for you to use on the overhead. Be sure to file your master copy, as you will PROBABLY lose some pieces and need to copy some more in the future.

Cut the student papers into the individual numbers. Put these number papelitos in envelopes. Pass out the envelopes, each student needs only one. Have the students line the PAPELITOS up on their desks

0123456789

Cut your transparency into the individual numbers also. Tell the students they will be "pulling down" the numbers they hear, in the order they hear them, separating them from the line-up

Say TRES, if necessary, hold up three fingers, and tell them to pull the TRES down out of the list of numbers. The transparency copy is on the overhead with the light off. Turn on the overhead light, and act extremely pleased that they all got the TRES, even though you showed them with your fingers.

Their papelitos should look like:

Turn off the overhead light. Everyone puts TRES back in its place.

Now you (not the students) put TRES and any other number, for example, CINCO, on the overhead with the light OFF.

Turn on the light.

Point to the TRES
¿ESTE NUMERO ES TRES? ¡SÍ!

Still pointing to the TRES
¿ESTE NÚMERO ES CINCO? ¡NO!

Point to the CINCO
¿ES TRES? ¡NO!
¿ES CINCO? ¡SÍ !

How did they know it was CINCO? Because it wasn't TRES!
Turn off the light.

I will say two numbers; pull them down.

CINCO TRES Turn on the light, show excitement at the correct numbers.

Their papelitos should look like

Turn off the light, have them put their numbers back in order. This is
important because reaching for the correct position on the number line is part of the learning process.

Add another number to the overhead--OCHO--will do. Turn light on.

¿SÍ o NO?

Always point to one they know first.

You point to TRES.
¿ES CINCO? ¡NO!
¿ES OCHO? ¡NO!
¿ES TRES? ¡SÍ!

Then point to the new one, OCHO.
¿ES TRES? ¡NO!
¿ES CINCO? ¡NO!
¿ES OCHO? ¡SÍ!

How do they know? OCHO was the new one, the one they didn't know,
so it is the only logical answer.

"The known leads to the unknown."

Say:
"Ahora prepárense para bajar tres papelitos."

Light off - Put 8 3 5 on the overhead.

Say OCHO TRES CINCO

They pull down their numbers. There is GREAT JOY at getting them right.

Their papelitos look like

Turn off light--always put numbers back.
Continue adding a new number each time.

When you add the new number, DON'T EVER TELL THEM WHAT IT IS.
DON'T say REPITAN and show them the number. Let THEM figure it out!!!
When you have about five numbers practiced, change your approach a bit.

For example, put up
8 5 3 7 2

Turn on light

Clase respondan, SÍ o NO (or you could add VERDAD/CIERTO, FALSO)

¿LOS NÚMEROS SON OCHO CINCO SIETE TRES DOS? ¡NO!
¿LOS NÚMEROS SON OCHO CINCO TRES DOS SIETE? ¡NO!
¿LOS NÚMEROS SON OCHO CINCO TRES SIETE DOS? ¡SÍ!

Turn off the light.

Call out the five digits in another order. Have them pull down the papelitos. Turn on the light.

Add a new number and have the students pull down their papelitos, see if they are right when you turn on the light. Continue adding one unknown number each time until you have finished 0-9

This is HANDS-ON, PHYSICAL, and INVOLVES the kids. You never REQUIRE them to say anything, but they will start repeating, even though you haven't said REPITAN. You will hear them quietly repeating the series of numbers to themselves as they pull down the papelitos.

After they have heard the numbers a lot and have practiced with
the PAPELITOS, call out a list but deliberately say the last two numbers backwards.

For example, put these numbers on the overhead, light off

8 7 3 4 2 5

but say: OCHO SIETE TRES CUATRO CINCO DOS

When you turn on the light, they react in one of two ways.
(1)They trust you completely, so they say OOPS! and reverse the last two PAPELITOS.
(2)They are so confident that they begin to get angry with you. Insist
that you are right. "Yo soy la maestra; ustedes son estudiantes. ¡Yo sé más que ustedes!" Then say, "Si no es OCHO SIETE TRES CUATRO CINCO DOS, ¿qué es?
They will YELL at you OCHO SIETE TRES CUATRO DOS CINCO.

Another approach to get them to SAY the numbers, but NOT just REPEAT, is to ask them, pointing to 8...Es OCHO o NUEVE? They DECIDE which it is and then say it.

HAVING THEM JUST REPEAT AFTER YOU SHOW THEM THE NUMBER DOES NOT INVOLVE THE BRAIN ON A DEEP LEVEL. They need to be MAKING DECISIONS, not just repeating in a rote manner. And teaching them to COUNT IS THE WORST METHOD OF ALL.

It has been proven that MOST PEOPLE, regardless of how well they speak a language, do math functions in their native language, or the language they learned MATH in. So what is the value of asking math questions in the foreign language class? The brain is hearing the foreign language, translating to English to do the math function, then translating back to say the answer. This happens whether we want it to or not. Math is a function of the native language.

When you think they feel confident, ask for volunteers to come to the
overhead and make up a series to challenge the class. They try to say the list as fast as they can to "stump" the other students. Give them a few minutes to prepare, so they can pronounce correctly.

When saying the numbers, don't slow down. Just repeat the series as many times as necessary at normal speed.

This works wonderfully with larger numbers. Make three copies of the
number master page, cut them up and put them all in the envelope. Have students line the papelitos up

0123456789
0123456789
0123456789

I started with this explanation. I am going to say a number that requires DOS PAPELITOS, pull down the number you THINK I am going to say, just guess.

If you say, OOOOOOOCH …. The student reaches for OCHO.
But you continue OOOO chenta y tres. He has already pulled down the OCHO, so he also pulls down the TRES. He realizes that he had the number OCHENTA Y TRES and he didn't even realize he KNEW those big numbers!

With my second year kids I did things like
343, 585, 812
trescientos cuarenta y tres millones, quinientos ochenta y cinco mil,
ochocientos doce

AS FAST AS I COULD! WITHOUT MERCY, and many could stay up with me.

When I turned on that overhead light, and they had it right, people
cheered! Football player types jumped up and did those funny hand-slapping motions to congratulate each other.

If they can hear numbers that hard, the simple ones become NOTHING to them. They were SO surprised when the test was just numbers through CIEN or MIL.

"Aren't you going to do those LONG, HARD ones like we did with the overhead?" Disappointed.

The real challenge came when I asked them to prepare one of the "hard" numbers and say it for the class, trying to say it clearly but too fast for the other to stay up and form the numbers correctly.