Video Transcript
Ordering Numbers up to 10
In this lesson, we’re going to
learn how to order numbers up to 10 using different strategies. And we’re also going to learn how
to use comparing words like smallest or largest, least or greatest.
Let’s start by thinking about three
numbers. We would have the number four, the
number nine, and also the number two. Let’s compare these three numbers
together. Which is the smallest number and
which is the greatest number? Well, to help us compare them
together, we could model each number using counters. First, the number four, one, two,
three, four. Now, the number nine. And let’s space our counters
equally so that we can compare our line of counters with the line of four. One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine. Finally, let’s model what the
number two looks like. One, two.
Now that we’ve modeled each number
out of counters, we can compare them just by looking at them. We can see that the number two has
the shortest line of counters. It has less counters than all the
other numbers. So, we could use a comparing word
like smallest here. The number two is the smallest of
our three numbers. Another word that means the same
thing is least. It is the least of our three
numbers.
Now, which of our three numbers is
the greatest? When we look for a number that’s
the greatest, we’re looking for a number that’s more than all the other numbers. And if we compare our lines of
counters, we can see that the number nine is the longest line. It must have the most counters in
it. So, we could say number nine is the
greatest of our three numbers. It’s the largest.
Now, let’s imagine we’ve been asked
to put these three numbers in order from smallest to largest. One way of helping us do this would
be to put our three rows of counters in order from shortest to longest. As we’ve said already, two is the
smallest number, nine is the largest number, and the number four is in between them
both. Can you see how we’ve put our lines
of counters in order from the shortest all the way through to the longest? They’re in order now.
Another way that we can check that
numbers are in order is by using a number track. Now, a useful thing about a number
track is that as we read the numbers from left to right, they are in order from
smallest to largest. So, let’s find the numbers nine,
four, and two on our number track. Here’s the number nine, the number
four, and the number two. So, in order from smallest to
largest, the numbers are two, then four, then nine. We’ve used some different
strategies there to help us order numbers up to 10.
Now, let’s put into practice what
we’ve learned by answering some questions.
Compare these numbers. Nine, three, and eight. The smallest number is what? The greatest number is what? Order the numbers from smallest to
greatest.
In this question, we’re being asked
to compare three numbers together. They’re the numbers nine, three,
and eight. We know that we need to compare the
numbers together because we’re asked to find the smallest number. And then, we’re asked to find the
greatest number. To help us find which number is the
smallest, let’s model each of our three numbers. Perhaps, we could use cubes. Let’s start with the number
nine. One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, a tower of nine counters. Our second number is three. One, two, three. This tower isn’t as tall as the
first one, isn’t it? Our third number that we need to
compare is the number eight. One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight.
Now, by modeling numbers like this,
it’s going to help us to compare them. Our first sentence says the
smallest number is what? Which of our three towers of cubes
is the smallest? Well, we can see that our tower of
three cubes is a lot smaller than number nine and eight. This means we can say the smallest
number is three. Now, which of our three numbers is
the greatest? The word greatest is another way of
saying largest. Which of our three numbers is more
than the other two? Well, again, if we look at our
towers of cubes, we can see that our tower of nine cubes is the tallest. This must mean it contained most
cubes. The greatest of our three numbers
is the number nine.
Now that we’ve compared our numbers
and we know what the smallest and the greatest numbers are, we can order them from
smallest to greatest. We said the smallest number was the
number three. The greatest number was the number
nine. And this means that the number
eight must be in the middle. We know this is true because if we
put our towers of cubes in this order, we can see that they now go up in size from
the shortest to the tallest. Out of the numbers nine, three, and
eight, we found that the smallest number is three. The greatest number is nine. And in order from smallest to
greatest, the numbers are three, eight, and nine.
Which is the greatest number from
three, four, two, and one?
We’re given four numbers here and
we’re asked which is the greatest number. Now, our four numbers are not in
order at the moment. So, we can’t just look at the last
one and say that that must be the greatest. Let’s use a matching strategy to
find the greatest number. First of all, we could make each
number out of counters. Three, four, two, and one. Now, out of these four numbers,
we’re asked to find the greatest number. Remember, another way of saying
greatest is the largest number, the number that’s more than all the others. So, we’re looking for the group of
counters that contains more than all the others.
Let’s match up the counters one by
one to see which group contains more than all the others. Each time we match a counter, we’ll
count aloud. One. Look how we’ve got no more counters
to match in this group. The number one must be the smallest
number. Let’s carry on matching. Two. There’s no more to match in this
group. So, the number two is the next
smallest number. Three. Now, if we look at all of our
groups, only one of them has any counters we haven’t matched. Our group of four counters has one
counter left over.
We’ve used a matching strategy to
find the largest number of counters. And we can use this to be able to
tell what the greatest number from three, four, two, and one is. It’s the number four.
Which set of numbers is ordered
from greatest to least? Five, six, seven, eight, nine. Five, seven, six, eight, nine. Or nine, eight, seven, six,
five.
We’re given three sets of numbers
here. And we’re asked which one of them
is ordered from greatest to least. These last three words in the
question are really important because as we read through our sets of numbers, we
might have heard one set of numbers that sounded like it might be right. But before we start looking, we
need to think about these last three words. What does it mean to order a set of
numbers from greatest to least? We know that another way of saying
the word greatest is largest, and another way of saying least is smallest.
We’re looking for a set of numbers
that starts with the largest number and goes down and down and down until we get to
the smallest number. You know when you walk down some
stairs, we might say, “I’m descending the stairs.” Or going from greatest to least is
descending order. We want our set of numbers to go
down. Let’s use a number track to help us
here. Now, we know that the numbers on
the number track are written in order. If we read them from left to right,
we start with the number one and we end with the number 10. They go up; they go from the least
to the greatest.
But our question asked us to look
for a set of numbers that’s in order from greatest to least. So, we need to read our number
track in the opposite direction, from right to left, starting with the number 10 and
ending with the number one. Now, which of our set of numbers is
in this order? Let’s jump along our number track
and see what we find. Our first set of numbers, five,
six, seven, eight, nine. Well, these numbers are in
order. We set them one after each
other. But we’re travelling in the wrong
direction here. We’re going from least to
greatest. Our numbers are getting bigger each
time. Five, six, seven, eight, nine. This is not descending order. This is ascending order. Our numbers are getting larger. But this set is not the correct
answer.
Let’s try our second set. We’re starting with the number five
again, seven, six. Well, let’s just stop there. These numbers are not in any kind
of order. We’re traveling in all sorts of
directions. The numbers five, seven, six,
eight, nine are not in order at all. What about our final set of numbers
starting with the number nine? Eight, seven. This looks like it could be the
correct answer; we’re traveling in the right direction. Our numbers are getting
smaller. Six, five. We can see that we started with the
greatest of our numbers, which was nine. And we’ve ended with the least,
which was the number five. Our numbers got smaller and smaller
each time. Nine, eight, seven, six, five. It’s the same as counting
backwards, isn’t it?
It would have been very easy to
think that the right answer was five, six, seven, eight, nine because we used to say
numbers that way. But we read the question really
carefully. And we saw that we we’re being
asked for a set of numbers that was ordered from greatest to least. And that set of numbers is nine,
eight, seven, six, five.
So, what have we learned in this
video? Well, firstly, we’ve learned how to
order a set of numbers up to 10. We modeled the numbers, used
matching strategies, and we also used number tracks to help. We described what we found using
words like smallest or least and largest or greatest.
