(bright upbeat music) - Hello everyone, and good morning.

It's so good to be with you today.

Before we get started, let's see if we have any mail.

A postcard for Ms. Post, let's see what it says.

Ms. Post, I heard that you and the teachers were taking a trip.

I wanted to offer my help, if Frisbee can't go, I would love to dog sit for you.

I have two dogs and I know how to take good care of animals.

That is so kind of you.

It's important to take good care of our animals and it can get pretty hot in Arkansas in the summertime, so make sure your pets have plenty of water.

Okay, let's talk about this trip.

Now, some of you might've seen this map before.

It shows the highest place in all of Arkansas, which is at the top of Mount Magazine.

It also shows us the highest points in all the states around us.

Now, when I talked to the other teachers in the teacher house about going on this trip, the first question they asked was, which state is the highest?

And which state is the lowest?

Now there are some big numbers that we're comparing.

So let's think about what needs to happen first.

To compare the numbers, I'm going to start by counting how many digits or place values are in each number, and then I'll group them accordingly.

Okay, so let's look at our states.

Louisiana has three digits, Oklahoma has four, Arkansas has four, Mississippi has three, Texas has four, Missouri has four and Tennessee has four.

Okay, so I need to put Mississippi up here with Louisiana and I'll move Oklahoma down.

Okay, so Louisiana and Mississippi are both in the hundreds place, everyone else has four digits, which means they're in the thousands place.

Now, when you're comparing numbers that have the same number of digits, look at the numbers in each place.

I'm going to start at the highest place value, which is always the farthest one on the left.

Let's start with Mississippi and Louisiana.

Now they both have three digits, they have the ones, the tens and the hundreds.

And I'm going to underline the eight from Mississippi, and the five from Louisiana in red so that you can see it.

So we're comparing the digits in the highest place.

So let's look at these two over here, I have written are Greater Than sign, are Equal sign and are Less Than sign.

When we look at Louisiana compared to Mississippi, the five is less than the eight.

So that means that Mississippi is greater than Louisiana.

So I'm gonna put Mississippi on top and Louisiana right underneath it.

Okay these states have elevations up in the thousands.

I'm going to compare the digits in the thousands place using our Greater Than sign, Equal To sign or Less Than sign.

And then we'll sort these numbers too.

First let's underline what we're comparing, the thousands place.

Let's look at Arkansas and Oklahoma two compared to four, well, the two is less than four, so let's put the four on top, Oklahoma is greater than Arkansas.

Let's compare Texas and Missouri.

Eight is definitely greater than one, okay, so I'm gonna move Missouri down here, and Texas is the eight, let's just compare over here real quick, eight, two, four, oh, he's moving all the way to the top.

Okay, so Texas eight, Oklahoma four Arkansas two, Missouri one, this looks good so far, but we've still got Tennessee down here.

Tennessee is a six, now, where would that fit in?

Eight, four, oops six would be right between those numbers.

So let's scooch everyone down, and Tennessee we'll go right there.

Okay let's check our order, eight, six, four, two and one in our thousands place, and don't forget, we still have Mississippi and Louisiana.

The highest point is in Texas at 8,751 feet, and the lowest point is in Louisiana, now this is still a high point, but in Louisiana, their high point's kind of low 535 feet and Arkansas is right in the middle at 2,753 feet.

Thank you for the postcard.

I hope today's lesson helped you think about how to compare big numbers.

I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Keep a positive mindset, grow every day by reading and asking questions, and maybe today you can read some more about the beautiful places to explore right here in Arkansas.

And remember, there's nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.

I'll see you soon.

(bright upbeat music)