Greater Than / Less Than

: "Henry, it's almost time for Dundee to get here, are you ready?" : "Of course I am!" : "Hi, Dundee!" : "Wait (...) I thought you were bringing food." : "That's okay, we have some veggies we can share with you!" While Skylar and Henry show Dundee vegetables, they can use "greater than, less than" to talk about the amount of food. We compare numbers by talking about how big or small they are with the phrases greater than, or less than. Instead of writing the words greater than or less than, we use these symbols. Greater than is a way to talk about a number that is bigger than another. Less than is a way to talk about a number that is smaller than another. These symbols look like the opening of a crocodiles mouth... and the opening of the symbol ALWAYS points to the GREATER number. Just like Dundee always opens their mouth up for the bigger plate of food! Let's see what Skylar and Henry bring to Dundee first. Skylar brings Dundee fifteen carrots while Henry brings twenty-six. Is fifteen greater than, or less than twenty-six? Fifteen is less than twenty-six When we compare two numbers, we create a math sentence and can read it. Just like when we read sentences in books, when we read math sentences we read from left to right. If we compare fifteen and twenty-six, we would read it fifteen is less than twenty-six. It looks like Dundee has requested even more food! Skylar and Henry bring out some cucumbers to impress Dundee. This time Henry brings out thirty cucumbers while Skylar brings out twenty. How can we compare their plates of cucumbers? We can compare using greater than or less than. Is thirty greater than or less than twenty? It's greater than! That means we will use the greater than symbol. If we read our math sentence we would say thirty is greater than twenty. Before we get to that party, let's summarize. Today we learned about greater than and less than. It's a way to compare numbers using symbols. Greater than is a way to talk about a number that is bigger than another. Less than is a way to talk about a number that is smaller than another. We also learned about the symbols used when creating a math sentence with greater than and less than. Remember that the opening of the symbol ALWAYS opens towards the bigger number... like a Dundee opening their mouth towards the greater plate of food! Now, let's see about that party! : "What do you mean, they ate all of the food we gave them?" : "It's okay, we'll order a pizza for the party!" : "Next time, let's give them fruit so they don't eat all of it!"