Lesson

Title/Focus

Less Than, Greater Than, and Equals Too

Date

November 5, 2104

Subject/Gra
de Level

Grade 4 Mathematics

Time
Duratio
n

60 minutes

Unit

1 lesson 4 Number Concepts: Comparing

Numbers

Teacher

Olivia Meyer

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:
Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

Develop Number Sense

Compare numbers by less than, greater than, or equal too.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Compare numbers by less than, greater than, or equal too.
2. Apply comparisons to real life examples.
3. Write and explain how they got their inequalities.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:
Key Questions:

Products/Performan
ces:

Students discussions and answers in L.A. 1, 2, and 3

Observe students behaviours in partner work.
What does less than, greater than, and equals too mean?
How can we apply them to real life?
Comparing and order whole numbers to 100,000
Math workbook, discussions, and bringing math alive activity.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Math Program of Studies
Learning Alberta T4T Website

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Whiteboard
Whiteboard markers
Jumbo cards
Dice

PROCEDURE
Prior to lesson

Grab out jumbo cards.

Write out brain teaser on the board.
Write out brain break on the board.
Get out dice.

Attention Grabber

Assessment of
Prior Knowledge

Separate out 12 DIFFERENT pairs out of a deck of cards.

Introduction
Brain Teaser on the board: Where do you find when 100 is less
than 99?
On the microwave because when you type in 100 it
turns into 1 minute (60 seconds) but if you put 99 in it
turns into 1 minute and 39 seconds. So therefore in this
case 100 is less than 99.
Write the inequality symbols on the board (<,>,=).
Get them to write them in their grid books.
Ask if they know the name of what each symbol is
Ask if they know what each symbol means.
Remind students that you are an alligator and you are
trying to eat the biggest number. There is a rhyme they
can say: Alligator, Alligator which one will you eat? The
bigger one the greater one, it will be sweet! Or the Less

Time

3 minutes

5 minutes

than symbol makes an L if you rotate it slightly to the

right.
Expectations for
Learning and
Behaviour
Advance
Organizer/Agenda
Transition to Body
Learning Activity
#1

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#2

Get your books out and do your job.

Partner up with your desk partners.

Body
Partner up and discuss what each symbol means.
With your partner come up with 3 real world examples
where you need to know greater than, less than, or
equal too. You will be writing this in your grid book so
take out your grid book.
Teacher examples:
Comparing to see if everybody got the same amount
of candy. (i.e. Ashtons candy pile is greater than
Adens candy pile)
In hockey you compare how many goals each team
got in order to figure out who won. (i.e. Kohens
team got 5 more goals than Coltons team)
When you are comparing money. So if you were to
buy something that is $15 but you only had $10 you
can conclude that your $10 is less than the $15 that
is needed to purchase this item.
And after the students have come up with the real world
examples I want you to come up with examples within
those real world examples and write them in their
inequalities. An inequality is the equation in which you
put the < or > signs in. (Example 1,089 > 746)
You use inequalities to help condense our sentences and
they are used a lot in the higher math levels.
Once the students have all of these done tell them to
put their hands up. Once a good chunk of students are
done get the classes attention with if you can hear me,
clap once. If you can hear me, clap twice. Etc.
Ask a couple of students to share their real life example
with the class. Ask them what their inequality is and how
to write it.
Walk around the classroom during partner discussions to make
sure students are staying on track, understanding the material
(FA), and are getting along with their partner.
Teach thumbs up/down to students

If you agree with the statement then thumbs up. If

you disagree thumbs down.

In Canada it snows in the winter. Do you agree or

disagree? Thumbs up if you agree or thumbs down
if you disagree.

We are currently living in Medicine Hat. Do you

agree or disagree? Thumbs up if you agree or
thumbs down if you disagree.
Perfect! We will be using this in our next activity. I will
choose four students, who are sitting nicely in their
seats, to come up to the front of the classroom. (Hand
out 1 jumbo card [A-9] to each student).
Get a fifth student to come up and rearrange the

30
seconds
Time

10
minutes

22
minutes

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#3

students into the largest number (example 8643). Then

ask the class to agree or disagree with the number and
the reasoning. Thumbs up if they agree or thumbs down
if they dont agree. Then ask the student who
rearranged the numbers why and how they did this.
Move the students to the left of the front of the
classroom (by the door) but they are staying in their
order
Get four more students to come up and they will each
receive four more jumbo cards.
Then get another student to come up and rearrange the
students into the largest number. Then ask the class to
agree or disagree with the number and the reasoning.
Thumbs up if they agree or thumbs down if they dont
agree (TU/TD). Then ask the student who rearranged the
numbers why and how they did this.
Then get one more student to come up they need to
decipher which number is greater and what symbol to
use (<,>,=) Remind students that you are an alligator
and you are trying to eat the biggest number. Or the
Less than symbol makes an L if you make it a little
bigger. Get students to disagree or agree with TU/TD
Then get another student to read out the inequality.
Example 8337 is greater than 8227.
Continue with more examples if needed.
Make sure you pick students that can stand still for a long time
and wont get distracted to hold up the cards. Pick students
who are sitting nicely to do the activity (tell them you are doing
this). Observe what the students agree/disagree (TU/TD) with
the answers that were given (FA). Also observe what students
said who did the rearranging (FA).
Get Ella to get one other person to help her hand out the
dice.
Once all the dice are handed out get the students to do
a brain break. This brain break will be on the board. If
they shake the die and whatever number it lands on is
the activity they have to do.
1 one push up
2 two frog jumps
3 three toe touches
4 four windmills
5 run in the spot for 5 seconds (Mississippis)
6 six jumping jacks
Once students are done brain break get them to sit
down in their chairs.
Explain the assignment before you separate the
students into pairs.
Everyone turn to page 19 lesson 4 in your math
workbook.
You will be put into partners, but before I separate you I
am going to explain the activity.
You and your partner will roll the die, taking turns. You
will then write down the numbers that you rolled in the
first blank and do so until all the blanks are filled out on
problem 1 in row A on page 20 of your workbook. You
will then repeat until row B is filled up on problem 1. You

15
minutes

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Consolidation of
Learning:
Feedback From
Students:
Feedback To
Students
Transition To Next
Lesson

Sponge
Activity/Activities

will then answer the questions bellow:

Which number is larger?
Explain how you know which number is larger. (I
dont want an answer of because I knew, I want you
to actually explain how you got to that conclusion)
Which place value position determined your answer?
You will continue to do this until all 5 problems are
completed.
When I say go you will find your partners. You will find
your card match up. So if you have a 2 you will find
another 2, if you are a 3 you will find another 3 and so
on. Separate students into pairs with cards ( As finds an
A and 2s find a 2)
As each pair of students are working walk around the classroom
to make sure that the students are working hard, understanding
the material, and are not fooling around. Observe the students
as they are participating in the activity (FA).
Closure
Ask some of the pairs of students to share some of the
numbers that they got and explain their answers. Ask them to
see if they can make them into inequalities. Do this with at
least 3 of the answers.

Time
3 minutes

The workbook and classroom discussions.

Great job today. I want you to come to class tomorrow and tell
me one thing you use an inequality with in your everyday life.
Now I want you to try and put the inequality symbols (<,>,=)
and write out your numbers in the inequalities. Example being
8765 > 6543

1 minute
2 minutes

Flash cards with a partner or read for AR.

Reflections from the

lesson

Lesson 6 Comparing and Ordering Numbers to 100 000

Objectives:
Compare and order whole numbers to 100 000.

Materials
- jumbo cards (A-9)
- whiteboards/ markers
- cards (A-9)
- tape

Introduction
1.
Have 4 students come up to the front of the room. Give each student a card to hold in front
of them (A-9). Have another student come up to the front of the room and arrange the students to
create the largest number possible. Have all other students give a thumbs up if they agree or a
thumbs down if they disagree. Have the student who did the arranging explain their thinking.
2.

Have 4 more students come up to the front of the room. Give each student a card to hold in
front of them (A-9). Have another student come up to the front of the room and arrange the students
to create the largest number possible. Have all other students give a thumbs up if they agree or a
thumbs down if they disagree. Have the student who did the arranging explain their thinking. Be
sure there is a space between the two 4-digit numbers.

3.

Finally, have another student come up to the front of the room. Using their arms, students
will show the sign, < or > (greater than or less than) in between the numbers. The students must
explain their thinking as to why they placed the sign in a certain direction. (Remind students to eat
the larger number).

4.

Then verbally say the number sentence out loud. For example, 4345 is less than 4567.
Continue with more examples as needed.

5.

Now work with 5-digit numbers. Write two 5-digit numbers on the board. (I suggest
working with numerals that are the same. For example, 14 322 and14 376). Ask students to place
the appropriate sign between these numbers. Have a student explain their thinking. (I looked at the
ten thousand, they were both 1 so I looked at the thousands, they were both 4. So I compared the
hundreds, they were both 3. I moved to the tens. One was a 2 and one was a 7. 7 is greater than 2
so 14 376 is greater than 14322).

6.

Continue the above activity by handing out whiteboards and markers to the students. Write
2 numbers to compare on the boards and have students write the comparing sentence onto their
whiteboards. Ask students to hold up their boards and check answers. Discuss each problem
afterwards and have students verbally explain why one number is greater than another number.

7.

Give each student a whiteboard and marker. Have students create a 5-digit number on their
white boards. Once all students have their numbers written on their boards, students will stand up
and create a circle on the outside of the room by arranging themselves in order from least to greatest
without talking. Time students to see how fast they have arranged themselves. When checking to
see if they did it correctly, have students verbally say their numbers out loud.

8.

Repeat the activity again and challenge students to beat their previous time.

Activities
9.

Choose a Mover and Shaker activity.

a) What Number Am I? - Using template, give each student a number. No one else should see
the number. Give each student a piece of masking tape. They need to find a partner and tape the
number onto their partners back without allowing their partner to see the number. All students
must get up and ask each other yes or no questions. Each student can only ask another student 5
questions before moving on. The job of each student is to try to guess what number is taped to
their back. Once a student guesses the correct answer, they can move their number to their front
and still answer questions from other students. Extension: As in the lesson, have students
arrange themselves from least to greatest without talking.
b) Card Battles! - Each player will pull out 5 cards from their deck and create a number. Players
will re-arrange the cards to create the largest number possible. Players will write each number in
the appropriate column and write the sign in the middle to show which number is greater.

10. Choose worksheets for your students to complete to reinforce the previous activities. Either allow
students to select a worksheet appropriate for their level, or the teacher may choose sheets suitable for an
individual or the entire class.
Closure
1. Mark and discuss worksheets. Do necessary corrections.
6

2. Math Journal Have students write down five 5 digit numbers. They then must write the numbers in
order from least to greatest and explain their reasoning to why they ordered the numbers as they did.