Lesson 14

Let’s Compare

Lesson Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for students to compare two-digit numbers based on the value of the tens and ones digits and use “greater than” and “less than” to describe comparisons.

Lesson Narrative

In this lesson, students use what they have learned about place value to compare numbers. In kindergarten, students used the terms “more than,” “less than,” and “fewer than” to compare groups of objects and numbers. In this lesson, students compare numbers using the language “greater than” and “less than.” In the first activity, students represent two-digit numbers and then compare them. In the second activity, students make sense of and critique the way others use the digits in two-digit numbers to compare values.

  • Representation
  • MLR8

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Compare two-digit numbers based on the value of the tens and ones digits.
  • Use “greater than” and “less than” to describe comparisons.

Student Facing

  • Let’s compare numbers.

Required Preparation

Activity 3:

  • Gather materials from previous centers:
    • Write Numbers, Stages 1 and 2
    • Grab and count, Stage 2
    • Five in a Row, Stages 1–3

CCSS Standards

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 15 min
Activity 2 10 min
Activity 3 15 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 0 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

Today students used the value of the digits in the tens and ones place to compare numbers. Why is it important to encourage students to be precise when explaining how they use the digits in the numbers to compare?

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