✏️ Integer Addition and Subtraction

About Integer Addition and Subtraction

Crossing zero is where arithmetic stops being about counting things and starts being about position, and it is reliably the hardest transition in middle-school number work. The difficulty is not the calculation — it is that two minus signs in one expression mean different things, one an operation and one a sign, and a pupil who has not separated those will guess. This worksheet is built around that separation. Negative numbers are always written with the sign attached and in brackets, so subtracting a negative looks visibly different from subtracting a positive, and the pupil can see which minus is which before deciding what to do. The five levels walk the five cases in order rather than shuffling them together: adding a negative first, then starting from a negative, then negative added to negative, then subtracting a negative — the case almost everyone gets wrong — and finally all of them mixed. Ranges widen as the levels progress. Negative answers are written with a true minus sign throughout, on the page and in the key, so nothing depends on a hyphen being read correctly. Twelve questions per page. Each level prints cleanly in black and white with its own separate answer key.

Common questions

Why are negatives written in brackets?

So the sign attached to the number looks different from the operation. A pupil who cannot tell the two minus signs apart will guess.

Which case is hardest?

Subtracting a negative. It gets its own level rather than being mixed in early.

How are negative answers written?

With a true minus sign, on the page and in the key, so nothing depends on a hyphen being read correctly.

Is an answer key included?

Yes. Every level downloads with its own separate answer key PDF.