A lice’s Monsters

Number Sentence
Signs
 A l i c e ’s M o n s t e r s

Number Sentence
Signs
 Alice snuggled down under the covers and As she began to drift off to sleep, Alice
closed her eyes. It had been a busy day at reached out to pet her cat. “Sweet dreams,
school, and she was tired. Jinks,” she said softly.

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 Alice’s hand touched something furry, but “Do you want me to show you what I
it wasn’t Jinks! learned at school today?” she asked.
“Snort! Fleeb! Gumball!” Alice exclaimed “Yes, please!” the monsters shouted.
as her eyes flew open.
She was always happy to see her three
monster friends. They lived in the cozy
space under her bed and often came to
visit her at bedtime.

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 Alice climbed out of bed, turned on the
light, and went to her desk.
“You already know the plus, minus, and
equal signs,” she said. “And now I’m going
to teach you about greater than and less
than signs!”

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 “The greater than sign is used to show
that one amount is more than another
amount,” Alice said. “The less than sign is
used to show that one amount is less than
another amount.”
The monsters frowned. “I don’t
understand,” said Fleeb.
“Watch. I’ll show you what I mean,”
Alice replied.

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 Alice got out her toy robots and put them
into two groups. “The first group has 4
robots. The second group has 3 robots. Is the
number in the first group greater than or less
than the number in the second group?”
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“Greater than?” Fleeb asked.
“Great job, Fleeb!” said Alice. “That’s
right, because 4 is more than 3.”
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 Next Alice added 2 more robots to the
group of 3 robots. “Now the second group
has 5 robots. Snort, is the number in the first
group greater than or less than the number
in the second group?”
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Snort thought for a moment. “Less than!”
he shouted.
“Yes, Snort!” Alice said. “4 is less than 5.”
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 “Not equal!” the monsters shouted together.
“Very good!” Alice said. “2 is not equal
to 7.”

“I learned about the not equal sign today,

too,” Alice said. “A not equal sign is used to
show that two amounts are not the same.”
Alice wrote an equal sign and a not equal
sign on her whiteboard. Then she put 2
robots in one group and 7 robots in
another group.
“Is 2 equal to, or not equal to, 7 ?”
she asked.

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 “Now let’s put together some longer
number sentences,” Alice said.
Then she heard a loud rumble.
“That was my tummy,” said Gumball.
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“Sounds like you could use a bedtime
snack,” Alice said. “Let’s go to the kitchen.
We can make number sentences there, too.”
Alice and her friends quietly tiptoed down
the stairs and headed to the kitchen.
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 In the kitchen, Gumball went straight
to a bowl of blueberries. He was about to
scoop some into his mouth when Alice cried,
“Wait! Number sentences first.”
Alice quickly arranged some of the
berries on the counter.
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“3 blueberries plus 1 blueberry is 4
blueberries,” Alice told her monster friends.
“5 blueberries plus 2 blueberries is 7
blueberries. Which sign do you want to
use—greater than or less than?”
“Less than!” exclaimed Snort.
“That’s right!” Alice said. “3 plus 1 is less
than 5 plus 2.”
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 Before Alice could continue, the monsters
gobbled up all the blueberries.
“It’s a good thing we have strawberries,
too!” Alice exclaimed as she set to work
again.
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“6 strawberries plus 2 strawberries is 8
strawberries,” she said. “And 4 strawberries
plus 1 strawberry is 5 strawberries. Which
sign do you want to use—greater than or
less than?”
“Greater than!” Gumball said.
“Very good!” Alice said. “6 plus 2 is
greater than 4 plus 1.”
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 Alice and her monster friends climbed
back upstairs. It was time for everyone to
go back to bed.

Snort let out a huge yawn.

“I think we’ve made enough number
sentences for tonight,” Alice said. She
turned to Gumball. “Did you get enough
to eat?”
But Gumball couldn’t answer. His mouth
was full of strawberries!

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 A little while later, Alice’s mom opened
the bedroom door.
“Alice, why is your light still on?”
she asked.
But Alice didn’t answer. She was
sound asleep.
As Alice’s mom reached for the light
switch, she saw strawberry stains all over it.
“Now how did those get there?”
she wondered.

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