Before After and Between

This lesson, “Before, after and between “, is a test to check the basic number skill of your child. What number comes before and after is an essential skill to master. This activity adds to the child’s understanding of the sequence of numbers.

This lesson enables a parent to check the level of awareness their child has about arrangement of numbers. Some children are not sure of what comes after a number ending in 9.

Examples:What comes after 99? What comes after 399? What comes after 999?

Another problem area for children is what comes before a number ending in 0. Examples: What comes before 100? What comes before 10000? What comes before 400?

Another area of problem targeted in this lesson is what number comes in between two numbers.

Examples: What comes between 645 and 647? What comes between 1000 and 1002? What number comes between 499 and 501?

How is the lesson organised?

There are five levels in this lesson.

Level 1 deal with single digit numbers and level 2 has questions on two digit numbers. Level 3 deals with three digit numbers and questions on four digit numbers are in Level 4. Level 5 has five digit numbers and a mix of questions related to the earlier levels.

Regular practice of this activity would help the child to have a thorough understanding of the sequence of numbers. Parents can prepare more questions for further practice.

This activity would help the parents to know how well their child is comfortable with the sequence of numbers.

Tips for you, the parents:

If your child is unable to do this activity, there could be two reasons for this.

  1. Difficulty in understanding the concept of sequences in numbers.
  2. Difficulty in understanding the words before, after and between.
  1. Difficulty in understanding the concept of sequences in numbers.

    The following activities are suggested to have a better understanding of the sequence of numbers.

    1. Read the numbers aloud from the number chart.
      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
      11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
      21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
      31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
      41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
      51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
      61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
      71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
      81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
      91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
    2. Reciting numbers in order.

      The child can be asked to recite numbers in order from one number to another number, say from 270 to 314 or from 561 t0 589 or from 991 to 1007. Regular practice would help the child to understand the sequence of numbers. The child can be asked to recite numbers backwards also.

  2. Difficulty in understanding the words before, after and between.

    Before, after and between indicate position or location. To teach position you can think of situations where the child can use the above expressions. Three people can stand in line. You can teach positions using this line of people. Similarly arrange few things in a straight line. Point out the positions and ask questions. Which is before or which is after etc.

    A child who has difficulty in understanding what is meant by before, after and between is likely to have difficulty with expressions such as front, back, below, under, over, in front of, at the back, at the end etc. The meaning of these expressions relating to spatial awareness may have to be taught repeatedly till the child is comfortable with these expressions.

The internet has hundreds of exercises relating to before, after and between.