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7th grade · Math · Unit 1 of 17

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.

Maine Learning Results 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 Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 1 of 17 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: Maine 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

    Put these integers in order from least to greatest.

    • 3
    • 2
    • -20
    • 5
    • -11

  2. Question 2

    Which expression has the same value as -14 − (-6)?

    • -14 + 6
    • -6 − (-14)
    • 14 + (-6)
    • -14 + (-6)

  3. Question 3

    Zoe is scuba diving at -10 m (below the surface). Zoe swims up 6 m, then down 7 m. What integer gives Zoe's new position?

    answer boxm

  4. Question 4

    Start at -10 and add 12. Where do you land?

    -15-10-505?
    • -22
    • 2
    • 3
    • -2

  5. Question 5

    At 6 a.m. the temperature was -9°C. By noon it had risen 17°C. What was the temperature at noon?

    🌡️-9°C

    answer box°C

  6. Question 6

    A hiker is 100 m above sea level. A scuba diver is 5 m below sea level. How far apart are they, measured straight up and down?

    answer boxm

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