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Positive and negative numbers
Need a positive and negative numbers within reach? Print it for the wall, then hand off to the practice sheets below.
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Reference chart
Positive and negative numbers
Adding and subtracting · walk the line
- Add 4: walk four steps right. −9 + 4 = −5.
- Add −4: walk four steps left. −6 + −4 = −10.
- Take away −3: turn around and walk right. 7 − (−3) = 10.
Multiplying and dividing · the signs decide
- +×+=+6 × 3 = 18
- −×−=+−6 × −3 = 18
- −×+=−−18 ÷ 3 = −6
Reading the line
- Further left is always smaller: −8 is less than −3.
- −505Opposites sit the same distance from zero, which is neither.
What's on this chart
That difference is why a child who knows these rules still gets them wrong. "Two negatives make a positive" is perfectly true of −6 × −3, and perfectly false of −6 + −3, which is −9. The sentence was learned in one half of the chart and applied in the other, and nothing about the words themselves says which half they belong to. Keeping them under two headings is the whole point of printing this.
Why this chart helps
The addition rules are worth reading as a single idea rather than two. Same signs means the amounts pile up and the sign carries through; different signs means they work against each other, so the bigger one wins by however much it is bigger. A child who has that picture can work out −9 + 4 without a rule at all, which is the state a chart like this is trying to hand them over to.
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