An important part of number work in Year 2 is to compare objects, stating which quantity has more. There are various terms which children should use, including, ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’, ‘greater than’, ‘less than’ and ‘equal to’.

Probably the hardest part of this work is using the ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ symbols (> and <). The use of these inequality symbols can prove to be a problem as it is very easy for children mix the two up. There are a variety of tricks to help remember; the one I like best is to think of the arrow as an open mouth (perhaps a crocodile) and the open mouth always faces the larger number e.g. 5 > 3. Five is greater than three.

We have just published a fantastic selection of colourful worksheets covering the language of comparing objects, to go with our already extensive range of resources on ordering numbers in Year 2. If you are looking for work on ordering numbers this is the place to go!