Number comparison, cardinality and ordinality
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Objectives:
- Revisiting basic number concepts
- Working with peers to recall and revise understanding of numbers and number relations
- To understand number cardinality through comparison of their relative sizes
- To understand number ordinality through comparison of their relative positions
Materials:
Small empty chits.
Activity 1: Guess the number and arrange those numbers in a sequence (ascending / descending order).
Process:
- Divide children into small groups of 6
- One child chooses a number of their choice and the others in the group try to guess it by taking turns to ask questions like "is it bigger/smaller than __".
- Once the number is guessed, the child who chose the number writes it down on a piece of paper and arranges it in the middle/on the bench.
- The process is repeated for each child in the group. Each child, after their number has been guessed, write it down on a chit of paper, and place it to the left/right of the previous number depending on whether it is lesser/greater than the 1st number.
Incorporating inclusive strategies:
- Groups can be created based on broadly similar levels of comfort that children have with number concepts
- Students can also be grouped based on languages they speak
- Each group can choose the number ranges they want to play with. For eg – numbers <10, <20, between 50 and 100, >100, etc.
- The facilitator can work with the groups that need their help and those who are comfortable with the activity can take up more challenging numbers and move beyond the greater/lesser questions to include “is it odd/even”, “is it a multiple of __”, etc.
- All groups can be encouraged to continue the activity as a game whenever they get time in schools.
- They can play in the same groups and progressively increase the difficulty level as everyone gets comfortable or form newer groups and play with others