Place Value within 20 - Compare numbers - Planning

In the second week of Autumn term for Year 1, students delve into the concept of comparing numbers within 20. This Maths planning session introduces children to key vocabulary such as 'compare', 'greater than', 'less than', 'equal to', and 'inequality symbols'. The class begins with a starter activity that encourages students to match numbers written as words to their numeral counterparts and to order these words. As a foundation, the lesson revisits the previous week's learning, where children compared numbers up to 10, and now they progress to numbers up to 20. Differentiated worksheets, teaching slides, and concrete resources like base 10 blocks and counters support the learning process. Partner work is encouraged to foster discussion and reasoning, helping children articulate their understanding of number comparison.

The lesson is structured around a series of activities. In the first activity, students compare numbers presented in both numerals and words, drawing on last week's lessons about tens and ones. The second activity uses number tracks to help children visualize and identify the smaller of two numbers, teaching them to count the steps between numbers and understand the direction of counting. The third activity introduces the use of inequality symbols to represent the comparison between numbers, such as 14 being greater than 9. Reasoning and problem-solving tasks further challenge students to identify the smallest and greatest numbers and to use number tracks to find intermediate numbers. The lesson concludes with a reflection on the skills learned, with children making a 'pinkie promise' to remember key aspects of the lesson. Differentiated sheets cater to varying levels of understanding, from finding the greatest and least numbers using digits, to comparing numbers in both digits and words, and for those at greater depth, performing calculations that mix numbers represented as words and digits.