What is the best way to teach 'more than and less than'?

[Suz855]

a) Bryan has 2 more cubes than Noel.

b) Bryan has 2 less cubes than Noel.
c) Noel has 2 more cubes than Bryan.
d) Noel has 2 less cubes than Bryan

The individual/number after 'than' is the starting number ... 2 more means you add 2 to it, 2 less means you take away from it

5 + 2 =7
5 - 2 = 3

As for c & d, we can rewrite it in number sentence as such
? + 2 = 5
Since part + part = whole, part is missing thus we take whole - part

? - 2 = 5
Since whole is missing, we add the 2 parts.

Ps, number bond and fact families concept must be introduce to kids and their understanding will help them to have good foundation in Maths.

Have fun

[matrix0405]

thanks guys, will try out the methods.

[mummaid]

My DS is in K2 this year, he also has problem understanding the 'less than' & 'more than' concept eg.


5 is 2 less than ____
5 is 1 more than _____
____ is 1 less than 6
____ is 3 more than 5


Is there any good way of teaching such concept, I've hard time explaining and DS always end up in tears doing this type of questions. :scared:

[mummaid]

My DS is in K2 this year, he also has problem understanding the 'less than' & 'more than' concept eg.


5 is 2 less than ____
5 is 1 more than _____
____ is 1 less than 6
____ is 3 more than 5


Is there any good way of teaching such concept, I've hard time explaining and DS always end up in tears doing this type of questions. :scared:

[autolycus]

mummaid:

Is there any good way of teaching such concept, I've hard time explaining and DS always end up in tears doing this type of questions. :scared:

Board games (the \"how many steps back, how many steps forward\" type) can work.

You can also try a kind of number line approach (or MRT stations?)

e.g.

--3--4--5--6--7--8--9--

Your first question:

What is 5 less than?(5)--6--7--8--9-->5 is 2 (steps) less than what?(5)--6--[7]--8--9-->Answer is 7.

Your third question:

What is less than 6?--3--4--5--(6)If it is 1 (step) less than 6, what is it?--3--4--[5]--(6)Answer is 5.

The trick is to teach 'less than' and 'more than' directionally, rather than quantitatively. You can then relate it to subtraction and addition if your DS is comfortable. Different children see arithmetic in different ways.

[mummaid]

Thanks for sharing.


DS is confused. He tends to 'add' when he sees the word 'more' and 'subtract' when he sees the word 'less', therefore

5 is 2 less than 3 => which is incorrect
5 is 1 more than 6 => which is incorrect

Will try to reinforce the numberline method and guess more practice sessions with him too (hopefully not tearing sessions for him)

[mummaid]

Thanks for sharing.


DS is confused. He tends to 'add' when he sees the word 'more' and 'subtract' when he sees the word 'less', therefore

5 is 2 less than 3 => which is incorrect
5 is 1 more than 6 => which is incorrect

Will try to reinforce the numberline method and guess more practice sessions with him too (hopefully not tearing sessions for him)

[raynreg]

Don’t know if it works for your child:


5 is 2 less than 3 => which is incorrect
(from the above, you can read as number 5 is "less", so the other number (or answer should be "more than 5")

5 is 1 more than 6 => which is incorrect
(in this case, the number 5 here is more. Therefore, the other number (or answer) should be less)

[mikii]

I have problem explaning below question to my DS


1) 458 is 16 more than _____

2) _____more than 73 is 212

Please help!

TIA

[electron]

Hi there


Have you tried converting the word statements to number statements?

For eg. ____ is 2 more than 5 can be written as _____ = 2 + 5
____ is 2 less than 5 can be written as _____ = 5 - 2

At P1 they have not learned about integers (negative numbers) so my DD
has taken to mean that you cannot subtract a big number like 5 from a small number like 2.

More eg. 5 is _____ more than 2 written as 5 = ______ + 2
6 is _____ less than 10 written as 6 = 10 - ______

Try examples with small numbers until they get the hang of it. Ultimately
it boils down to understanding the language usage.

Hope that helps.