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

[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.

[24hr-mum]

u can draw models to show via the part-part whole concept

ie eg 5 is 2 less than ______

5 and 2 would be side by side as they are parts
the whole will be 5+2=7

[plum-cake]

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.

Thank you for this tip..

[atutor2001]

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)

The real problem here is \"language\" and not the concept of \"more or less\". Many students who are weak in their language face this problem. Imo the only solution is \"drill\" until it becomes part of the memory just like the \"timetable\".

[phtthp]

hi pixiedust,


can share how you use those snap cubes to teach K2 child ‘more or less’ concept ? Thank you.

[smartmummy]

In P1,when I saw the qn,it made me confused too.Then I found have to find out which is big or small.Then I told to my son,u have to understand what is the qn,u cannot add for "more" and minus for "less".After did some qns he managed to do these qns.Of course they struggle first.

[PiggyLalala]

Have posted this before in another thread. You may want to consider the method below.


Solving questions on ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ sums

Type 1
_______ is 5 less than 12.
Cover up 5. The question will then be read as ______ is less than 12. Therefore is the smaller number. To find the smaller number, we always need to subtract. The answer is then 12 - 5 = 7.

Similarly
__ is 2 more than 12
Cover up 2 again. The question will then be read as ______ is more than 12. Therefore ____ is the bigger number. To find the bigger number, we always need to add. The answer is then 12 + 2 = 14.

Type 2
3 is 4 less than ____
Cover up 4. The question will then be read as 3 is less than ______. Therefore 3 is the smaller number and ______ is the bigger number. To find the bigger number, we always need to add. Therefore the answer is 3+ 4 = 7

10 is 6 more than _____
Similarly cover up 6. The question will then be read as 10 is more than ______. Therefore 10 is the bigger number and ______ is the smaller number. To find the smaller number, we always need to subtract. Therefore the answer is 10 -6 = 4

Type C
2 is ___ less than 10.
In this question, we are comparing the 2 numbers, 2 and 10. 2 is less than 10 but by how much? To find the answer, we use the bigger number minus the smaller number, that is, 10 - 2 = 8.

10 is ______ more than 4.
In this question, we are comparing the 2 numbers, 10 and 4.
10 is more than 4 but by how much? To find the answer, we again use the bigger number minus the smaller number, that is, 10 - 4 = 6.

Hope you can understand my solution…