100s chart mystery pictures are a great way to practice number sense! These print-and-go pages are perfect for centers, morning work, or early finishers. This activity is a great way to provide students with extra number practice as they fill a 100s chart to create a fun image.

Hundreds charts should not be the only tool students are using to explore numbers, but it is an important one. If you think about the other common ways we ask students to work with numbers (number lines, base ten blocks, etc.) they are typically working with an isolated group of numbers. With a hundreds chart they are seeing the big picture.

How many pictures can I choose from in this set?

There are 5 options in this set for back to school. If you’re looking for more, I offer another set with 48 images are broken down by season, but you could use them any time of the year!

The pictures are scissors, pencils, glue bottle, school bus, and school.

There are a variety of pictures included in your resource. The difficulty varies between each page, as no two pictures are the same. Most pictures require students to move all 100 squares to cover the hundreds chart, but there may be a few where there are no squares to move because the picture requires a white color. An answer key is provided in your PDF.

How do students create the mystery pictures?

Students will read the color code at the bottom of the page and color each square of the hundreds chart. Some squares may not be colored in because they will remain white. When the students are colored in all the squares, a mystery picture will be revealed.

Will my students really be able to complete these pages?

For kids just learning their numbers, this will need to be a shared activity. You can call out the numbers for your students or complete the chart together in a whole group setting.

Once your students have more exposure to numbers, these activities are great for your early finishers or indoor recess days.

After your students are pros with these types of mystery pictures, you can explore ways to make this activity more difficult. These same pictures can be achieved by creating a color key where students are working to solve for the numbers (rather than just given the numbers).

For example, if the number 17 needs to be yellow, students could solve for the square by naming the number that has 1 ten and 7 ones, adding 7 and 10 together, or subtracting 3 from 20.

This is fun! Do you have it in a digital format?

These pictures are not available in a digital format, but my other sets can be found for Google Slides here.

I love these! Do you have more?

Yes, you can find hundreds chart mystery pictures for the entire year here.