Last week we looked at the more/greater than and less than symbols. Some of you have been in touch to say that your child is finding it tricky to remember which symbol to use. We will recap the symbols and how to use them today. Here are two catchy songs to listen to which help teach this concept.

These are the symbols we use when working on more/greater than, less than, and equals to.

• The first symbol means equal to. The amount written on both sides of the equal symbol will be the same. For example, 14 = 14, or 10 + 4 = 14, or even one ten and four ones = 14. In all of the examples I have written, the amount on both sides of the = symbol is 14.
• The middle symbol above means ‘less than’. Whatever number you write to the left of this symbol must be less than the number written to the right of it. For example, 14 <15, or 10 + 4 < 15, or one ten and four ones < 15. All of these mean that 14 is less than 15. The amounts written to the left of the symbol, in this case 14 is less than the amount written to the right of the symbol, 15.
• The final symbol above means ‘more’ or ‘greater’ than. Whatever number you write to the left of this symbol must be more or greater than the number written to the right of it. For example, 15 > 14, or 15 > 10 + 4, or 15> one ten and 4 ones. All of these calculations show that 15 is more than or greater than 14.

This picture might help you to remember.

Children often find it useful to imagine a hungry alligator with an open mouth!

The hungry alligator always eats the bigger number. So the ‘open’ mouth will always face the bigger number, the number that is more/greater than the smaller number.

Have a go at completing the practical activity I demonstrated in the video. Write a more /greater than symbol ( <) on a piece of paper and a less than symbol (<) on another. Ask your child to pick two number cards from the 1 -20 set provided in your resource pack. Place them on the floor or table with a space in between. Which symbol should they put in the space, the more than/greater symbol, or the less than symbol?

The photo below demonstrates what I am asking you to do, although the child is using larger numbers. If your child is confident at recognising and using larger numbers you could also extend the activity in this way.

The child has used the symbol correctly to show that 95 is more than/greater than 42.

95 > 42.

Try this activity now. Write out the numbers below and ask your child to fill in the missing symbols, > < or =.

Here are the answers.

 

This is a game your child can play to reinforce what we have been learning about today.

https://www.softschools.com/math/greater_than_less_than/alligator_greater_than_game/