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7th grade · Math · Unit 1 of 16

Add & Subtract Integers

Positives, negatives and zero pairs

What your child practices

Adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers with number lines, temperatures and elevations, including the idea that subtracting a number is the same as adding its opposite.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 7.NS.A.1 · adding and subtracting rational numbers, including negative numbers

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. On a number line, adding moves right and subtracting moves left.
  2. A positive and a negative of the same size cancel out: +1 and −1 make 0.
  3. Subtracting a negative is the same as adding a positive.

Example: −3 + 5 = ? Start at −3 on the number line. Move 5 to the right: −2, −1, 0, 1, 2. Answer: 2

Add & Subtract Integers in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 16 in 7th grade Math, before Decimal Operations.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Maya is scuba diving at -18 m (below the surface). Maya swims up 11 m, then down 6 m. What integer gives Maya's new position?

    answer boxm

  2. Question 2

    A hiker is 30 m above sea level. A scuba diver is 17 m below sea level. How far apart are they, measured straight up and down?

    answer boxm

  3. Question 3

    What is -9 + (-12)?

    -9 + (-12) = ?

    • 21
    • -3
    • -21
    • 3

  4. Question 4

    What is -12 − (-9)?

    -12 − (-9) = ?

    answer box

  5. Question 5

    Start at 4 and add (-4). Where do you land?

    -112345?
    • 0
    • 8
    • 1
    • -1

  6. Question 6

    Which expression has the same value as -8 − (-18)?

    • -8 + 18
    • 8 + (-18)
    • -18 − (-8)
    • -8 + (-18)

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