New
New
Year 5

El Día de los Muertos: information questions with 'cuántos' and 'cuántas'

Learning outcomes

I can ask and answer questions about El Día de los Muertos using 'cuántos' and 'cuántas'.

I can identify and transcribe words with strong and weak vowels.

New
New
Year 5

El Día de los Muertos: information questions with 'cuántos' and 'cuántas'

Learning outcomes

I can ask and answer questions about El Día de los Muertos using 'cuántos' and 'cuántas'.

I can identify and transcribe words with strong and weak vowels.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Weak vowels [i] and [u] merge with strong vowels a, [o], and [e] to make a single syllable,
  2. The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday. Families set up and decorate special tables called 'altares'.
  3. The question word cuánto agrees with the gender and number of the noun it refers to: cuánto, cuánta, cuántos, cuántas.
  4. To describe plural nouns, add -s to adjectives ending in -a, -e and -o. For those ending in -l, -s or -z, we add -es.

Keywords

  • Strong vowel - the vowels [a], [e], [u] which are pronounced separately when they appear next to each other

  • Weak vowel - the vowels [i] and [u] which merge with [a], [e] and [o] to make a single syllable

  • Cuántos - question word meaning 'how many' for masculine plural nouns

  • Cuántas - question word meaning 'how many' for feminine plural nouns

Common misconception

There is only one way to say 'how many' in Spanish: 'cuánto'.

In Spanish, the question word 'cuánto' agrees with the gender and number of the noun it refers to. There are four forms: cuánto (m), cuánta (f), cuántos (mpl) and cuántas (fpl),


To help you plan your year 5 spanish lesson on: El Día de los Muertos: information questions with 'cuántos' and 'cuántas', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

There are lots of excellent videos and resources about El Dia de los Muertos, which would develop pupils' understanding further. It may be helpful to choose a small selection of these so that pupils can see El Dia de los Muertos in a real-life context.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the Spanish to the English.
Correct Answer:aprender,to learn, learning

to learn, learning

Correct Answer:escribir,to write, writing

to write, writing

Correct Answer:escuchar,to listen, listening

to listen, listening

Correct Answer:leer,to read, reading

to read, reading

Correct Answer:necesitar,to need, needing

to need, needing

Correct Answer:participar,to participate, participating

to participate, participating

Q2.
Order the numbers from biggest to smallest.
1 - diez
2 - nueve
3 - siete
4 - cinco
5 - cuatro
6 - dos
7 - uno
Q3.
Which words could describe 'una niña'?
Correct answer: feliz
divertido
Correct answer: cansada
Correct answer: grande
pequeño
Q4.
Match the Spanish to the English.
Correct Answer:preparar,to prepare, preparing

to prepare, preparing

Correct Answer:tener,to have, having

to have, having

Correct Answer:ser,to be, being (permanent traits)

to be, being (permanent traits)

Correct Answer:estar,to be, being (temporary states)

to be, being (temporary states)

Correct Answer:hablar,to speak, speaking

to speak, speaking

Correct Answer:marcar,to tick, mark, ticking, marking

to tick, mark, ticking, marking

Q5.
'Cuántas guitarras tienes?' Translate the sentence into English.
Correct Answer: How many guitars do you have, How many guitars have you got, Haw many guitars have you
Q6.
'I receive a small red present.' Translate the sentence into Spanish.
Correct Answer: Recibo un pequeño regalo rojo

6 Questions

Q1.
Which word means 'food'?
diccionario
foto
amigo
cama
Correct answer: comida
Q2.
Match the Spanish to the English.
Correct Answer:azul,blue

blue

Correct Answer:rojo,red

red

Correct Answer:amarillo,yellow

yellow

Correct Answer:negro,black

black

Correct Answer:verde,green

green

Correct Answer:morado,purple

purple

Q3.
Order the words to say 'the skulls are placed in front of the altar'.
1 - las
2 - calaveras
3 - se
4 - colocan
5 - frente
6 - al
7 - altar
Q4.
Which question means 'how many books are dictionaries'?
¿Cuántos libros son azules?
¿Cuántos diccionarios hay?
Correct answer: ¿Cuántos libros son diccionarios?
¿Cuáles libros son diccionarios?
¿Cuántos libros son novelas?
Q5.
'Flores rojas decoran mi altar.' Translate this sentence into English.
Correct Answer: Red flowers decorate my altar
Q6.
'How many candles do you light?' Translate this sentence into Spanish.
Correct Answer: Cuántas velas enciendes

Additional material

Download additional material