In kindergarten, students compared quantities and answered “are there enough?” questions. They compared numbers and quantities using “1 more” and “1 less” or “1 fewer.” In this lesson, students revisit the structure and language of these compare situations to prepare for solving Compare, Difference Unknown problems in upcoming lessons. Throughout the lesson, listen for the different ways students describe the quantities in the story problems and activities and how they describe the difference using informal and formal language.

In upcoming lessons, students will represent and solve Compare, Difference Unknown story problems. How will the work of this lesson help prepare students to make sense of questions that ask “how many more?” and “how many fewer?” How will the matching strategies elicited by the contexts in this lesson help students make sense of the relationships between a bigger quantity, a smaller quantity, and their difference?