Counting and comparing groups

You have sorted things into groups. Now you are going to count them and see which group is biggest.

Apples:   🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎        5
Bananas:  🍌🍌🍌            3
Pears:    🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐    7

Three words you need:

Word	Means
more	there is a greater number of it
fewer	there is a smaller number of it
the same	exactly the same number

Pears are the most. Bananas are the fewest.

How many more? Pears 7, bananas 3. Work it out: 7 − 3 = 4 more pears.

A tip for counting correctly: point at each thing as you count it, and move it aside once you have. Then you never count anything twice.

Count things at home or in the classroom. Pick something you have a lot of.

Task 1 — shoes in the hallway. Sort them by colour. Count each pile. Write:

black:  ___
white:  ___
other:  ___

Which colour is there most of? How many more is that than the smallest pile?

Task 2 — letters in your names. Everyone in the group writes their name. Count how many letters each name has. Who has the most? Who has the fewest? Do any have the same?

Task 3 — compare two days. Count how many people bring a packed lunch on Monday and on Tuesday. Were there more, fewer or the same?

A question to think about: if you count a pile twice and get different answers — what did you do wrong the first time? (Usually: skipped something, or counted the same thing twice.)