Whilst children will be introduced to negative numbers in Year 4, it is in Year 5 that most of the work on this topic is done. It is recommended that using real-life situations to explore negative numbers is the best approach and thermometers are certainly one of the best resources.

An important part of this is to encourage children to use the term ‘negative’ rather than ‘minus when talking about negative numbers.

For example, -3 degrees Celsius should be read as, ‘Negative three degrees Celsius,’ rather than, ‘Minus three degrees Celsius.’ This helps with understanding that a negative number is a number, rather than a subtraction.

We have just published three great sets of pages, giving you a wide selection of resources to help with understanding negative numbers.