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Newspaper Numbers 2

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Purpose:

You can help your child to order numbers including fractions, decimals and percentages.

What you need:

  • Newspaper, junk mail or old magazines
  • Scissors

What to do:

Help your child to look for a collection of numbers and cut these out. Try to find numbers of a mixture of types, including decimals, fractions and integers.

Once you have a pile of numbers (10 to 15 would be plenty) put them in order from smallest to largest. Ask your child questions about the order of numbers as you work:

  • Which is the smallest number?
  • Which number is next smallest?
  • What counting number is this number closest to?
  • How can we tell which number is bigger if one is a fraction and one is a decimal?

Help your child to identify numbers that are missing from the sequence.

  • What number would be one more than this one?
  • What number would be one less than this one?

If you have found percentages, discuss how these can be included. A percentage needs to be a percentage of something, but you could treat all percentages as percentages of 1, so that for example 50% is equivalent to 0.5.

Variations:

Add numbers that you did not find in the newspaper such as improper fractions or negative numbers.

He Kupu Māori:

fraction hautau
decimal number tau ā-ira
order, sequence raupapa (-hia)
bigger nui ake
smaller iti ake
negative number tau tōraro

He Whakawhitinga Kōrero:

  • Kimihia ētahi momo tau i roto i ngā nūpepa me ngā moheni nei. Tapahia ngā tau ka kitea e koe.  (Look for different types of numbers in these newspapers and magazines. Cut out the numbers you find.)
  • Raupapahia ēnei tau mai i te iti ki te rahi. (Put these numbers in order from smallest to biggest.)
  • He hautau tēnei tau. He tau ā-ira tēnei. Me pēhea e mōhiotia ai ko tēhea te tau nui ake? (This number is a fraction. This is a decimal number. How do we know which is bigger?)
  • He aha te tauoti e pātata ana? (What is the closest whole number?)
  • He aha te tau kotahi te rahinga ake i tēnei? (What number is one greater than this?)

Download a file of this activity:

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