Take three hands-up answers to the opening question, not open call-outs. Listen for pupils spotting that 980 and 875 are three-digit and so must come before the thousands. Do not sort them yet — that is the work of the next steps; here you just want pupils noticing where they would begin.

Slide a finger left to right to the first column that differs.

Set 1 (980, 1,020, 1,200): 980 has no thousands so it is smallest; a shorter number is automatically smaller because it has fewer columns. 1,020 then 1,200 decided by the hundreds.

Set 2 (4,005, 4,050, 4,500): same digits, thousands tie. Hundreds give 4,500 the biggest (5 hundreds). Tens split the rest: 4,005 smallest, then 4,050. Slow right down column by column.

Set 3 (6,030, 6,300, 6,303, 6,330): 6,030 smallest. Let the class predict 6,300 before 6,303 — the units settle it, 300 comes before 303. Then 6,330 biggest.

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

The interactive steps through the three sets one at a time. Ask a pupil to drag the smallest card into the first bucket, then the next, and have the class say aloud which column decided each choice. Then move to the next set for a fresh pupil.

• {720, 1,050, 950} — 720 and 950 are three-digit; 1,050 has thousands, so it is biggest.
• {5,600, 5,060, 5,006} — same digits, thousands tie, slide right.
• {4,180, 4,081, 4,810, 4,018} — the four-number set is the stretch; let pupils predict the two closest (4,018 and 4,081) before revealing.

Rotate a different pupil across each set.

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

• Ask which two numbers were hardest to tell apart in each set.
• On {9,090, 9,009, 9,900, 9,000} the pair 9,000 and 9,009 differs only in the units — this is the pause; let the class predict before the Check.