These Greater Than and Less Than Posters are a great way to help children to understand and use 'greater than', 'less than' and 'equal to' statements when comparing numbers.

The posters show the greater than sign, the less than sign and the equals sign in a variety of formats, both with cubes and maths statements as well as on their own.   

If you are looking for ready-to-teach maths lessons in this area, check out our Year 2 'How Can We Compare Numbers?' scheme of work and our range of Number and Place Value lesson packs.

Look below to learn more about these important Maths symbols!

What is the equals sign?

The equals sign shows when two values are the same. The symbol in the form we use now was invented in 1557 by Rober Recorde. In his book he wrote 'And to avoid the tedious repetition of these words: "is equal to" I will set as I do often in work use, a pair of parallels, or duplicate lines of one [the same] length, thus: =, because no 2 things can be more equal.' 

The equals symbol looks like two parallel horizontal lines, like this = 

The equals symbol is placed between two equal values. For example: 4=4, 100=100, 2+3=5, 64+36=100

What is the greater than sign?

The greater than sign shows the difference between two values. This symbol has been found on documents dated as old as the 1560s! 

The greater than symbol looks like a 'v' on its side, like this > 

The greater than symbol is placed between two values when the first value is greater than the second value. For example: 4>1, 100>30. 

What is the less than sign?

The less than sign shows the difference between the two values. This symbol has been found on documents dated as old as the 1560s! 

The less than symbol looks like a 'v' on its side, like this < 

The less than symbol is placed between two values when the first value is less than the second value. For example: 4<6, 100<101. 

Tricks for remembering the greater than and less than signs:

The bigger end of the symbol always opens towards the greater number. The smaller pointed end of the symbol always points towards the smaller number. It can be helpful to imagine the sign is an alligator who always wants to eat the bigger number.