Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Robinson.

In this lesson, we are going to be comparing quantities.

We are going to start by comparing some quantities, looking at some things in the big picture.

And I'm going to show you a way that I like to make sure I know whether or not I have more or fewer of an item.

We're then going to talk about the language of more, fewer, and less, and when to use which of these words, and then comparing quantities again and trying to use this language correctly.

Then it will be time for your task, where you're going to look at the big picture and compare some different items. For this lesson, you will need up to 20 things so that you can make two different piles to compare.

I'm going to use my multilink cubes so that I can stick them together to make towers, but you could use a bead string or cubes, lego, marbles, whatever you have around.

Pause the video now to collect 20 things, and when you're ready, press play.

We're going to start by looking back at the big picture that we've already looked at in previous lessons.

This big picture is a picture of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." You can see the three bears standing around the table, you can see Goldilocks as well, but in this picture, as we've talked about before, they all look very happy.

So I think they've made up after Goldilocks broke their chair and their bed and ate their porridge.

In this picture, there's loads of things for us to count.

We could count milk bottles, cups, bananas, apples, lamps, umbrellas, scarves, hats, bears, chairs, so many different things.

And in one of our previous lessons, we did practise counting by looking at the things in this picture.

What we're going to be doing in this lesson is counting two sets of things and then comparing those quantities to find out which one has more and which one has fewer.

I'm going to start by comparing the bowls and the spoons.

So, let's start by counting how many of each are made.

And then I'll show you a way that I organise my things to find out which one has more and which one has fewer.

So that start by counting spoons.

One, two, three, four, five, six, and seven, one more on the floor.

So there are seven spoons.

I need to make sure that I have a seven spoons.

Let's then count the bowls.

One, two, three, four, five, there are five bowls.

I have collected these items and I'm going to show you now how I organise them to see which one has more and which one has fewer.

But here I have collected five bowls and seven spoons.

I'm going to compare these two quantities so fast.

I'm going to put them in a line across my floor, and then I'm going to show you the trick that I like to use to compare two quantities.

So I'm going to start with one ball over here, two, three, four, and five bowls.

Then I get my spoons, and I'm going to line them up as well.

But I'm going to connect them to the bowls, that's going to help me compare.

So one, two, three, four, five, and then I have two spoons left over.

So I can see quite clearly by connecting the spoons to bowls, by matching them up like this, which you can do with cubes or other objects if you like, I can see that there are five bowls and five spoons, but then the spoons have two more leftover at the end.

Two more that don't have a bowl to be matched with.

So I have more spoons than bowls, I have five bowls and I have five, six, seven spoons.

There are fewer bowls than there are spoons.

So we've seen them represented as bowls and spoons, and we've compared the quantities.

But we also could look at them as cubes.

So if these are my spoons and these are my bowls, I've got blue cubes to represent the spoons and orange cubes to represent bowls.

I have a tower that is seven cubes tall for my spoons, one for each spoon, and five cubes tall for the bowls.

Because they aren't spaced out evenly and they are the same size, I can see by comparing the two towers, which one has more and which one has fewer.

We're going to think quickly about the language that we're using.

We can use the word less to describe numbers.

So if I told you that three was less than 10, I would be using less correctly.

When we are talking about things that we can actually count, so bowls and spoons, we should try to use the word fewer in place of the word less.

There are fewer bowls than spoons.

So whenever in this lesson you are comparing things, please try to use the word fewer and the word more.

So there are fewer bowls than spoons, and there are more spoons than bowls.

Try to use the word fewer whenever you need to compare items. Now that we've compared quantities using our real props and using some cubes, we are going to have a go at comparing quantities from the big picture just using cubes or whatever it is that you have with you now.

I'm going to make sure that my cubes are the same size and that they're all stacked together nicely, so then when I look at my towers, I can compare really easily, which one has more and which one has fewer.

If your things aren't the same size, you will have to do some counting to check.

So, let's start by comparing bears and cups because it's important that every bear has a cup to drink from.

Let's count the bears first.

One, two, three.

I'm going to get three cubes ready for my bears.

So one, two, three.

These are going to be my bears.

Next, let's count how many cups there are, one, two, three, four, five, six.

There are six cups.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

I can stand them next each other like this.

So this is my three bears, and this is my six cups, I can see already which one has more and which one has fewer because they are quite different, aren't they? There are more cups than bears, there are fewer bears than cups.

Can you say those sentences with me? There are more cups than bears, there are fewer bears than cups.

Fantastic.

Let's compare one more thing.

Let's compare umbrellas and chairs.

So, first I'm going to count me umbrellas.

I've got one umbrella over here, and one more umbrella over here.

That's all the umbrellas I can see in this picture.

It is a little bit like where's Wally, isn't it.

There's a lot of things to count.

So sometimes you do need to scan back through and check the picture to make sure you found all the things you're looking for.

So I'm going to have two cubes to represent my umbrellas.

Then let me count how many chairs.

One, two, three, four, there are four chairs.

One, two, three, four.

And I stand my two towers next to each other like this.

I can see that there are more chairs than there are umbrellas, and there are fewer umbrellas than there are chairs.

Can you have a go at joining in with those full sentences with me? There are more chairs than there are umbrellas, there are fewer umbrellas than there are chairs.

Fantastic.

I can see by looking at those that the blue tower is taller, and the orange tower is shorter.

That means this one has more and this one has fewer because they are the same size and I'm starting them at the same point.

They are level with each other.

If I showed you my cubes like this, it would look a bit like orange was taller than blue, but I'm not starting them at the same point.

So I can't trust that that's correct.

I need to make sure that my cubes start at the same place.

I could even stand my towers on a table or my finger to make sure that they are level with each other.

when you're using your items, if you have things that are the same size, that will be the easiest for you to be able to quickly tell which one has more and which one has fewer.

If they're not the same size, then you might like to make sure that you're spacing them out the same way.

So that when you look at them, you can see which one has more and which one has fewer.

Now that we've done some comparing of quantities together, it's your turn to have a go.

Your task for stay is going to be to look at the big picture, and choose two things to compare.

I have given you some things to compare, to start you off if you can't decide what start counting, like you can compare how many apples and how many birds there are.

Once you've done the ones that I recommended, you can count whatever you would like to compare.

So you could compare bears and milk jugs, bananas and scarves, hats and chairs, whatever combinations you would like.

First you're going to count both items, then make both items and to compare using the words more and fewer.

It's time now for you to complete your task.

Pause the video to complete your task, and when you're finished press play.

I hope that you've enjoyed all of the counting and comparing that we have been doing today.

Before we finish, I'm going to show you one more thing.

On the screen are three numbers, all day today we have been comparing two numbers, but now we're going to think about how to compare three, have a look at the three numbers on the screen.

I can see the number five, the number three, and the number seven.

Under each one are some cubes to represent that number, to show you how many that looks like.

I'd like you to start by deciding which number of these you think is the smallest.

I know that three is the smallest number.

I know this because I can look at the cubes underneath and I can see that three has the least cubes, the fewest cubes.

Here, I have made three in a tower.

Now I want you to think about what the biggest number is, which of these numbers has the most cubes.

Seven has the most cubes.

So three has the fewest and seven has the most.

I must be able to put five in the middle of those two numbers then, and I can check and see what they look like altogether.

So I have three, then with two more, I have five, Then with two more again, I have the number seven.

I've ordered these from the least to the greatest, the smallest to the biggest.

We've done this by first, finding which one the smallest one is, then finding which one the biggest one is, then putting them in order, and checking to make sure that they are increasing each time, they are getting bigger each time, and they are.

We've got three, then two more is five, then two more is seven.

I've ordered these from the smallest to the greatest.

Thank you for joining me today, for our work on counting and comparing numbers.

I hope you've had as much fun as I have had, and I know that you've done some fantastic learning.

Why not share your work with us.

If you'd like to please ask a parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, by tagging @OakNational and using the @LearnWithOak.

We'd love to see what you've been getting up to.

Don't forget to go and complete the quiz.

Thanks again for joining me.

See you next time.