Putting Three or More Numbers in Order from Least to Greatest

Think about where you have seen this before. Librarians, shopkeepers, and mail carriers all put numbers in order every single day. This is worth learning because ordering is comparing repeated, and it organizes anything countable. Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

Here comes a new math idea. To order several numbers, find the smallest first and set it down. Then find the smallest of what remains, and keep going. Order 45, 23, and 51 that way: twenty three is smallest, then forty five, then fifty one.

Compare tens first each time, exactly as you learned. Ordering is just comparing over and over, so if you can compare two numbers you can order ten.

Try checking your finished order. Read your list from left to right and confirm each number is larger than the one before it. Finding your own mistake at the end is much better than someone else finding it later. Try it once with someone beside you, then try it alone.