Compare Rational Numbers on a Number Line

Start with Positive and Negative Numbers in Real Life to give the signs meaning. Then use the number line pages, and finish with the word problem pages, letting students sketch a number line if they need one.

Name 6 points on a number line and compare 14 pairs like negative 3/4 and negative 0.7. On a number line, the number farther to the right is always the greater number. The directions on the page read: Name each point on the number line. Then compare the numbers, using the number line to help you. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade integers, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with positive and negative numbers. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Treat it as a path rather than a picture: your child puts a finger on a number and hops along it, saying each number as they land. Hopping physically is what makes the line make sense. Reading it as a diagram comes much later.

Objects show how many. A number line shows order and distance, which objects cannot. It is the first tool that makes the gap between numbers visible, and it becomes essential for skip counting, comparison, and later for negative numbers and fractions.

It is the classic number line mistake and worth correcting gently. Count the jumps between numbers, not the numbers themselves. Saying "hop" out loud with each move usually fixes it within a session or two.

They describe opposite directions or values from 0. A deposit of $40 is 40 and a withdrawal of $25 is −25, and 5 degrees below zero is −5. Positive and Negative Numbers in Real Life also asks what 0 means, such as sea level for a diver.

Place them on a number line and read from left to right. For −3, 2.5, 1/2, −0.75 and 3 3/4 the order is −3 < −0.75 < 1/2 < 2.5 < 3 3/4.

The number closer to 0 is greater. So −1.2 is greater than −1 1/4, and −7/8 is greater than −0.9, because they sit farther to the right on the number line.

Write rises and gains as positive numbers and drops and losses as negative numbers, then add. A diver at −35 feet swims down 12 feet and up 20 feet, so her elevation is −27 feet.