Eight sections of a class newspaper called The Comparison Times, on 13 pages, each built around one question: how does a model help you solve a comparison problem? Page 1 (Headline Hunt) has six news briefs: students underline the comparison, decide whether it is times as many or more or fewer, and write an equation. Pages 2 and 3 (The Equation Desk) read 24 = 3 × 8 two ways, as 24 is 3 times as many as 8 and as 24 is 8 times as many as 3, with a tape diagram for each, then caption news graphics and decide which sentence fits a story. Pages 4 and 5 (Money Matters) are the problem Ken has $5, Mark has 3 times as much, step by step from bills to a tape diagram to 3 × 5 and the total, then two problems to try. Pages 6 and 7 (Diagram Detective) match stories to models, explain a wrong model, finish a model and draw models from scratch. Page 8 (Missing Number Bureau) keeps one story and hides a different number each time, so students see why division solves two of them. Page 9 pairs stories with the same numbers, one more than and one times as many. Pages 10 and 11 (Reporter’s Notebook) have two classroom articles to log and solve, then a page for phrases from real books, magazines and news and a news brief of the student’s own. Pages 12 and 13 (The Fact-Check Desk) are a memo from the editor: check two claims, repair a graphic, prove two more claims and write two true headlines.
Start with page 4 and real or play money: hand one student a $5 bill and another three, and ask who has 3 times as much. Draw the same thing as a tape diagram on the board, Ken’s one box under Mark’s three. Use pages 2, 3 and 9 for partner talk: one partner reads a sentence, the other says what is compared to what. Pages 12 and 13 make a good challenge at the end of the unit.
Look for comparisons together in a newspaper, a sports page or a recipe: twice as many, 3 more than, 5 times as long. Ask your child which amount is being compared to which, and whether it is “more than” or “times as many.” Then make up a question each phrase could answer.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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A newspaper-themed collection about comparison problems: times as many, more than and fewer than, and how a model shows the difference. Students read headlines and articles, draw tape diagrams, find the bigger amount, the smaller amount or the multiplier, fact-check reporters’ claims and explain their thinking.
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