5th Grade Negative Numbers worksheets

About this worksheet

Negative numbers are formally a Grade 6 standard, 6. NS. C. 5, which is where students learn to use positive and negative numbers together to describe opposite directions and values. This worksheet is an introduction, not the full Grade 6 treatment, so it carries the Grade 5 code 5. G. A. 1, the standard that first defines a number line as an axis with an origin at zero, because that is exactly the idea a negative number extends: the number line does not stop at zero, it keeps going below it. A fifth grader who has only ever seen counting numbers often assumes zero is the smallest number there is, so seeing -5 for the first time can feel like a trick rather than a real quantity. This worksheet grounds negative numbers in situations a child already understands: a temperature colder than zero, a submarine deeper than the surface, and owing money instead of having it.

Some questions ask your child to read a value marked on a number line that extends below zero. Others compare two values, including two negative ones, since -10 is colder and therefore less than -2, which surprises children who expect the number with more digits to always be bigger. A few questions ask about distance from zero without using the word "absolute value," since that vocabulary is saved for Grade 6, but the idea, that -8 is farther from zero than 5, is exactly what that vocabulary will later name. Encourage your child to picture a thermometer or a number line below zero for every question here.

What your child will learn

• Read a value marked on a number line that includes negative numbers
• Compare two temperatures, including two below zero
• Write an amount owed as a negative number
• Explain why a more negative number is smaller, not bigger
• Compare how far two numbers are from zero