Comparing Numbers with Big Kids!

Many people think of comparing numbers with younger grades, but in third and fourth grade kids start comparing and ordering 4 to 6 digit numbers. Sometimes I have a couple kids that struggle with this. I know as an educator you don’t have much time, so here are some quick tips to help those kids to master comparing numbers!

1. Don’t assume anything!

Before teaching you may want a simple conversation using the words more and less. Keep it short but think about water bottles, containers in the room, and class sizes. I have assumed kids knew what this meant in the past and learned the hard way they seriously didn’t know.

(For some reason I did not get the super cute handwriting skill that many teachers have, but a quick anchor chart to reference the next day is my thing.)

2. Place Value is important!

Make sure they know their place value (hundreds, tens, ones places) and the value or a number- this helps big time! (Think comparing expanded form if needed.)

3. Manipulatives

When in doubt start with manipulatives! I know they're "big kids," but trust me! Base ten blocks are perfect to start before hitting the thousands place. Then you can use place value disks. If you want to be fancy you could use whatever you have with a key. (Ex. Red squares = 100, blue squares = 1,000 or use those mini erasers! Tacos = 1 Snowmen = 10,000 etc) Kids need concrete first and from there you can start drawing. The excitement every time I pull out my mini erasers is SO real!

4. Money and Food

Talk in dollars or food. I don’t know why, but if I ask kids if they’d rather have $500 or $400 they seem to get it! Favorite/gross foods often work too. Gross foods are more effective because then you don’t have someone say they don’t like chocolate or cake or whatever!

5. Card games

All you need is a deck of cards to play essentially the game of war and your engagement will go up! The kids flip over 3 cards (or however many digits they are comparing) then whoever has the bigger number once they arrange their cards wins all of the cards. (With the goal of getting all the cards or the most cards) You do have to take out the face cards for this or they could be worth zero. It’s a game of chance, but they sure are motivated to win!

Now what?

Once we get going in the unit I love to do lots of sorting activities. You can click below to see the comparing number sort that I use. It has come in handy since it has a digital version for when I forget to copy need something quick to assign to my students. For an extension you can give your kids index cards and they create a math center- they write the numbers with an empty sort and have their friends sort into greater than and less than stacks.

It also is nice because you can assign only 4 digits to the kids that need to start slow and assign 4, 5, and 6 digit to the kids that can handle it. There’s a recording sheet too so I can check quickly for accountability or a grade! I hope this helps when you’re introducing your comparing and ordering numbers unit!