Free · Ready to print · Letter & A4

Trace the math signs

Plus, minus, times, divide, equals, less than, greater than. A child meets all seven long before anyone teaches them to write one, and every arithmetic worksheet quietly assumes they can.

  • Letter & A4, portrait or landscape
  • Real stroke centrelines, not outlines
  • Change the size and reprint

Trace the signs

Name

Start on the dot and follow the arrow. Trace the faint ones, then write your own.

Plus12
Minus
Times12
Divide123
Math PicnicFree printable tracing sheets · mathpicnic.comPage 1 of 2

This is page one of 2 at the default size. Open it in the maker to print the rest, choose a range, or fit more on a page.

About this sheet

These sit on the midline rather than the baseline, because that is where they sit in "3 + 4 = 7". It sounds like a detail and it is the difference between a sign that reads as part of the sum and one that reads as a mark underneath it. A plus written down at baseline height beside two numbers looks like a small t, and children who learn it there keep writing it there.

Why it is drawn this way

Less-than and greater-than are the two worth spending real time on, and the sheet says the same thing under both rows: the small end points at the smaller number. That is the only reliable way to remember them, and it is a sentence about the SHAPE rather than a mnemonic about an alligator — a child who has learned the alligator has to remember which end is hungry, which is one more thing than the shape itself requires.