The purpose of this activity is for students to learn Stage 1 of a new center called Greatest of Them All. Students use digit cards to create the greatest possible two-digit number. Each student draws a card and writes that number as a digit on the recording sheet. Each student does this twice, to make a two-digit number. Once a digit is placed, it can’t be moved. Students compare their numbers using , , or . The player with the greater two-digit number wins the round. Students think strategically about place value when they decide how to use the first of the two cards they draw (MP7).

Students should remove cards that show 10 from their deck.

• Display a recording sheet with a 5 in the tens place for one partner and the rest blank.
• “My partner has a 5 in the tens place. I choose a card and see that it is a 6. Where should I write the 6? Why would you write it there?” (Write it in the tens place because 6 tens is more than 5 tens so the number in the ones place won't matter. You will have the greater number.)

The purpose of this activity is for students to write the symbol or number that makes a comparison statement true. Students read the comparison statement. This activity has two parts. In the first part, students are given two numbers with a blank space. Students write a comparison symbol that makes the statement true. Then students read the comparison statement. Reading the statement encourages students to relate the language of comparison to the symbols (MP6). In the second part of the activity, students create true comparison statements when given a comparison symbol and one number or when only given the comparison symbol. Students determine a number or numbers that will make the comparison true.

• Display .
• “How did you know what number would make the statement true?” (I knew it had to be greater than 78 because I read the statement ‘blank is greater than 78’. I put in a number and read the statement out loud to see if it was true. I chose a number with more than 7 tens so I knew it would be greater than 78.)
• Display .
• “How did you know what number would make the statement true?” (I knew it had to be greater than 39 because I read the statement ‘39 is less than blank’. I put in a number and read the statement out loud to see if it was true. I chose a number with more than 3 tens so I knew that it would be greater than 39.)
• Invite students to share comparisons they made for  and  . For each comparison shared, have the class decide if it is true or not.