Mystery Picture!

Objective & content

This activity sheet is a colour-by-code puzzle. Bruno asks pupils to find his mystery picture. A code gives five colours: one is blue, two is grey, three is red, four is yellow and five is orange. Below it, a big grid of squares each shows a number written as a word. Pupils read every word and colour the square, and a picture slowly appears: a rocket in the night sky. By the end, pupils read the number words one to five and five colour words, and say what the picture is ("It's a rocket!").

Pedagogical guide

The sheet has one task and one question. The code at the top is the key to everything: read it together first, aloud, so every pupil knows which colour goes with which word. Each square of the grid shows one, two, three, four or five, so pupils read the same five words again and again, and the picture only comes out if they read each one right. The big areas come first: all the one squares are the sky, all the two squares the body of the rocket. The smaller parts follow: red for the nose and the fins, yellow for the window, some stars and the edge of the flames, and orange for the flames. Under the grid, pupils complete "What is it? It's a ..." with the name of the picture. The banner shows only a moon and a planet, so the answer stays a surprise. Page 2 shows the coloured picture and the answer ("It's a rocket!"), with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Read the code together: "One is blue, two is grey ..." Point to the colours in the classroom.
2. (5 min) Colour a few squares together and say the colours aloud.
3. (20 min) Pupils colour the grid alone: all the "one" squares first, then the "two" squares, then the rest.
4. (5 min) Pupils write what the picture is; check with page 2: "It's a rocket!"

Adaptations

[S] Colour a few squares together and say the colours aloud before pupils go on alone.

[A] Pupils make a code for a small picture of their own on squared paper and swap with a partner.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of page 1, in colour or black and white. Pupils need a pencil and colouring pencils in blue, grey, red, yellow and orange. Page 2 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should know the numbers one to five; the code gives the colours.