Question Video: Ordering Three Groups from Smallest to Largest by Counting the Number of Objects in Each Group Mathematics • First Year of Primary School

Video Transcript

Each group of animals has a pack of 10 and some loose members. Order the animals by how many are in each group. Start with the smallest number.

In this question, we’re shown three different groups of animals, a group of monkeys, a group of horses, and a group of cats. The animals have been grouped into a pack of 10 and some loose members. We have to order the animals by how many are in each group, and we have to start with the smallest number. Let’s start by counting the monkeys. We already know there’s a pack of 10 which have been circled and some loose members. Let’s count the number of monkeys outside the circle. There are two. 10 and two more makes 12.

Let’s count the horses. We’ve got a group of 10 inside the circle and some loose horses. How many horses are outside the circle? There are six. 10 and six makes 16. Now let’s count the cats. We’ve got 10 cats inside the circle and three outside the circle. 10 and three makes the number 13. Which of these is the smallest number? 12, 16, or 13? To help us work out which is the smallest number, we could use this number line. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. We can see that the number 12 comes first in the counting sequence, which means it’s the smallest number, followed by the number 13. And the biggest number, the number which comes last in the counting sequence, is number 16. 10 and two ones is less than 10 and three ones and less than 10 and six ones.

We have to order the animals by how many are in each group. The group with the smallest number is the monkeys. There are 12 monkeys. The group with the most animals is the one with horses. There are 16 horses. And there are 13 cats, which is more than the number of monkeys and less than the number of horses. So the correct order of the animals according to how many are in each group is monkeys, cats, and horses. We ordered the animals from the smallest number to the greatest number. We used our knowledge of tens and ones and the counting sequence to help. The correct order of the animals is monkey, cat, horse.