Greater Than, Less Than & Equal

I like this idea from CScope to give kids both an interactive and visual model of greater than, less than and equal to. This is normally a difficult concept; however this year, my students refer back to our pouring the liquid in the two cups pictured back and forth comparing the water levels. We then worked together to make the posters so we would have a visual to refer to for the rest of the year. The colored water has long since evaporated from the cups (which was another discussion altogether), but the students look at the pictures all the time!

Who Has the Greater Number? (Math Game)

To play this fun and simple game, simply remove the face cards, jokers and 10's from a set of playing cards. Pairs shuffle the deck and place it in the center. Each student draws 2 cards and arranges the digits to build the greatest number possible. The player who can build the greatest number takes all 4 cards. Both players are required to say the number they build out loud. In the case of a tie, both players leave those cards and redraw 2 cards each. The player with the greatest numbers takes all 8 cards. The kids loved it and learned a lot about 2 digit numbers as well as the term "greater."

Comparing Numbers Kinesthetically

An easy and fun way to compare numbers - I asked my students to tell me numbers in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's (about 4 each). As they told me the numbers I simply wrote them on the construction paper. (The students could also do this.) I printed "is less than" and "is greater than" signs. (I used a larger font size for the word greater and a small one for the word less.) Students came up in 3's - 2 chose a number and the other was the language card person. They put themselves in order to make the math comparison sentence. The whole class then read the math sentence to verify it was correct. They said they loved it. Easy. Little prep, fun and very effective.