Grade: 5th
Subject: Math
Expectation(s): Can add, subtract, multiply and divide with large and small negative and
positive numbers
Materials needed: Worksheet
Teaching and learning tips/strategies:
• Working with negative numbers is conceptually difficult for many students. Subtracting negative
numbers can be particularly confusing, since many students are used to thinking of subtraction
as the process of “taking away,” and it doesn’t make sense to “take away” a negative number of
objects. Thinking of adding and subtracting with negative numbers as movements on a number
line is a more useful model. Encourage your student to think of the first number in a problem as
the starting point on the number line; from there, adding any positive number results in moving
right on the number line and adding any negative number results in moving left on the number
line. For example, in problem #1 below, you would start at point 449 and then move left 449
units to reach 0. Similarly, in problem #5, you would start at point -63 and move right 96 units to
point 33. Subtraction is just the opposite; subtracting a positive number results in moving right
on the number line, while subtracting a negative number results in moving right on the number
line.
• Don’t forget to praise your student’s efforts!
Directions: Solve
1) 449 449 2) 449 449 3) 77 88 4) 4,002 3,879 5) 63 96 6) 33 33 33 7) 28 100 8) 54 55 9) 55 55 120 10) 65 112 8 11) 12 12 12) 1,725 69 13) 176 22 14) 10 10 0 15) 337 1 2 16) 850 186 17) 24 2 200 18) 99 33