Grade 1 Learning - #'s 11 to 20

Bonjour! This week we have been focusing on learning and representing the numbers from 11 to 20 en francais. Our tools for learning have included the 'double grille de 10' (double ten-frame) and 'les jetons' (counters). Students have been asked to demonstrate their knowledge of the numbers by adding the correct number of counters onto their 'double grille de 10' when prompted with a number between 11 and 20. The grilles are nice because they help to visually see how close a certain number might be to 20, 10, or 15. We have also worked a bit with 'les animaux' - students count the number of animals and represent that amount using counters on the grilles de 10 (see photo).

Questions I'm asking the students include "Est-ce que ca c'est plus de 10, 15, 20?" (is this more than 10, 15, 20), "Est-ce que ca c'est moins de 10, 15, 20?" (is this less than 10, 15, 20), "Combien moins de quinze/vingt est-ce que c'est?" (how many less than 15/20 is it?) Students would benefit from lots of practice counting to 20 in French, especially those numbers between 10 and 20. Our English number system is confusing enough with these numbers, and French is actually slightly more confusing as only 17, 18, 19 have reference to ten in their names (dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf). The others really make no connection to the fact that they are ten plus some more, and as such, simply need to be committed to memory by repeated counting and saying of the number names. A great practicing song the students seem to enjoy is posted below and can be found on YouTube by searching for "Alain Le Lait - Numbers from 1 to 20". Any questions or concerns please let me know!