How to Remember Greater Than and Less Than

Think back to elementary school.  No, like when you were in elementary school!

Do you remember learning about > and < in math?

How to remember “greater than” and “less than” was so hard for me.

I was terrible at keeping it straight.

Stay with me for ideas on helping your tween and teen with this concept.

The Alligator Method

At my school, some teachers would make up a story about an alligator or a pacman (it varied, depending on the teacher)…

And the teacher would draw an alligator body or pacman circle around the symbols and say that the alligator/pacman wanted to eat the bigger number.

Something like this–

The alligator/pacman method was a great strategy for a lot of my classmates.

I, however, couldn’t remember how the story went. (insert eyeroll, haha)

And my drawing skills are pretty terrible, so trying to sketch over the symbol didn’t help, either.

Somewhere along the way…I think it was after I started teaching…I heard a teacher say that the less than symbol (<) looks like an L…the first letter in “Less than.”

Y’all. This was a game changer for me.

It’s so stinkin’ simple.

If your teen or tween is Team Alligator or Team Pacman, I’m super happy for you.

But if they’re more like me, then give this idea a try!

Keeping these greater than and less than signs straight may seem small, but it has a bigger impact in several ways.

1. In an immediate way, it impacts your child’s ability to do well in this section of his or her math class.
2. These > and < signs will come up again–in future math classes and occasionally even in “real life.”
3. In a more important sense, getting this concept straight involves genuine perseverance and a belief that this can be figured out.  (That’s growth mindset!)

You, just by reading this, are showing that you want to be truly helpful.  You’re searching for a solution.

This step is part of my Parent’s Guide to Your Teen’s Most Successful Year in Math.

It’s a free guide.  Check it out.

You’ve got this!