Adding and Subtracting Negative Numbers — Free KS3 Worksheet
A free, printable KS3 worksheet on adding and subtracting negative numbers, with a full worked answer key. 16 questions graded easy to hard for Years 7, 8 and 9, building from counting past zero up to two signs together and worded temperature and lift problems.
Negative numbers stop being frightening the moment they are a position rather than a rule. Think of a number line, or a thermometer on a cold morning. Adding moves you right, subtracting moves you left, and it works the same whether you start above zero or below it. Everything on this sheet follows from that one picture.
What is on the sheet
The questions build in the order the idea does. First, calculations that cross zero, which is where the number line does the most work. Then adding a negative, which moves you left even though the sign says add. Then subtracting a negative, the one that turns into an addition and the one most pupils want a reason for. After that a mixed set with signs in every combination, and two worded questions, one about temperature overnight and one about floors in a lift, where a negative is a real position rather than a symbol.
Marking it
The adding and subtracting negatives lesson keeps the number line on screen throughout, which helps for anyone who is guessing at the sign rules.
Keep going
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Want all 8 number properties worksheets at once?
One PDF, 125 questions, every answer key included, in teaching order. Every sheet in it is free on its own page too. The pack just saves you collecting them one at a time.