Be able to communicate which stack has more or less.Use the stack of four to help them figure out how many are in the stack of 7.When students see a stack of 4 Unifix cubes and a stack of 7 Unifix cubes, we want them to be able to do three things: It’s far easier for students to compare groups when they are lined up than when they’re disorganized and spread out. First, let’s take a peek at comparing organized groups: Comparing Numbers in Organized Groups Kathy Richardson (math guru), makes an important distinction between comparing organized groups and unorganized groups (e.g. We want students to be able to see what is the same and different between them.

The first stage of comparing numbers is to start with comparing groups of objects. Today, we’re going to make sure we take a look at three main stages on the path to successfully comparing numbers. A lot has to happen before we can expect students to start comparing numbers out of context and using symbols to show those comparisons.

Less than signs