Negative Numbers
Count backwards through zero to include negative numbers
What a learner can do afterwards
- Count backwards from 5 through zero: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, −1, −2 …
- Place negative numbers on a number line
- Understand that negative numbers are less than zero and use them in context (e.g. temperature)
1 · Read
You already know how to count forward: 1, 2, 3, and up and up. Numbers can also go the other way, below zero. When you count down past zero, you reach negative numbers. They have a small minus sign in front, like −1, −2, −3.
Mia checks the temperature before bed. It is 2 degrees. Overnight, it drops 5 degrees. She counts back to find the new temperature: 2, 1, 0, −1, −2, −3. The temperature is now −3 degrees, three degrees below zero.
When you count backward, do not skip over zero. After zero comes negative one, then negative two. Zero itself is the middle point, not a negative number.
Negative numbers are less than zero. Keep counting backward through zero to reach them: 2, 1, 0, −1, −2.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Walk up and down through zero, one step at a time.
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
17 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.