In this activity, we will be putting numbers in order, starting with the largest and ending with the smallest.

This is called descending order.

Example

Put the numbers in descending order.

Answer

Look at the hundreds place first.

931 is the biggest because it has the largest hundreds digit.

Next we compare 541 and 518.  

They both have a 5 in the hundreds place, so we look at the tens place and see that 541 is larger than 518.

469 is the smallest because 469 has the smallest hundreds digit.

In descending order the numbers go:

Let's try some questions on this now.