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Nov. 15, 2005
Comparing and Ordering Numbers
The basic skills associated with comparing and ordering numbers are identifying which of two numbers is greater and which is less, putting numbers in order from least to greatest and also from greatest to least.
Principle: God's ways are greatest
Leading Idea: God lifts up those who humble themselves. Those who recognize their need for a savior the most will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Scripture:
Mat 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Reasoning:
People like to be noticed for the good things they do. We like attention and recognition. When we succeed, it is easy to take the credit and minimize our failures. We also like to think that we are not so bad, and can think of other people who are in a worse moral state than we are. But to be recognized as great by God, we must humble ourselves, and think of ourselves last. We must see our sins as God sees them, and remember to compare ourselves to His perfect standard rather than other men.
Definitions:
"Greater than" means "more than" or "bigger than." It's symbol looks like this: >
"Less than" means "fewer than" or "smaller than." It's symbol looks like this: <
"Equal to" means the "same as." It's symbol looks like this: =
Activity:
For this lesson, we are going to compare numbers to see which are greater and which are less. (Numbers are nice...they don't think they are any greater than they really are!) Young children have a difficult time with symbols as similar as < and > because they often flip these symbols in their minds. To help, I begin by drawing an alligator with a big open mouth and saying that the alligator always eats the bigger number, showing his wide open chompers devouring a big number. My daughter likes to draw teeth in her symbol, and that is fine for young children.
After discussing the vocabulary, and doing some practice problems orally, I got out the dominoes. This is similar to "domino addition" except now we are comparing the two sides of the domino. Draw out one domino and lay it horizontally on the paper. Write the two numbers represented by the dots on the paper and the appropriate sign in between.
For activities like this, I often set a timer and see how many she can do in five minutes. This keeps her focused and engaged, and is really all that is necessary. A child does not NEED to do 100 problems to prove how well they know something. In five minutes, she typically does 8 - 10 problems. If she gets them all right, I know that she gets the concept and there is no need to drill further. If she gets them all wrong, I know that she does not get the concept and I need to back up and re-explain. If she misses a couple, I know that we need to continue this practice...and five minutes a day will be fine.
This can also be done by drawing two cards from a deck, or rolling two dice. At this point, I would not do it by rolling one die twice. It really does help the child to be able to see the numbers side by side...the written number itself is an abstract concept, and it is beneficial to have it tied to something more concrete while working with these skills.
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