🔑 Key Concepts
- Positive numbers are greater than zero, and negative numbers are less than zero.
- Adding a negative means moving left on the number line.
- Subtracting a positive also means moving left on the number line.
- Zero pairs are one positive and one negative that cancel each other out.
- Models and number lines help explain why an integer answer is positive or negative.
✏️ Worked Examples – Adding and Subtracting Integers With Models
🧠 Math Vocabulary
- Integer: A whole number that can be positive, negative, or zero.
- Zero pair: One positive and one negative that cancel each other out to make zero.
- Positive number: A number greater than zero.
- Negative number: A number less than zero.
- Number line: A visual model used to show the location and movement of numbers.
💡 Main Idea
Integers can be added and subtracted by using visual models such as zero pairs and number-line movement. Zero pairs help show what cancels out, while the number line helps students see direction and distance. These strategies build understanding instead of relying only on memorized rules.
📚 What You Should Already Know
Before this lesson, students should be able to identify positive and negative numbers, locate integers on a number line, and understand that moving right increases value while moving left decreases value. It also helps if students know that opposite values can balance to zero.
🚀 What Comes Next
After learning to add and subtract integers with models, students can move on to writing integer expressions, solving equations with integers, applying signed-number rules more fluently, and working with rational numbers in real-world contexts such as elevation, temperature, and financial gain or loss.
🧩 Embed This Video in Your LMS
Teachers can embed this YouTube video directly into Canvas, Google Classroom, Schoology, or another learning platform. Click below to show the embed code.