Year 5 · Summer term · Negative numbers · Step 4
Year 5 Compare and order negative numbers worksheets
Compare and order numbers, including negative numbers, using a number line. A free editable Word sheet with eight fluency and six reasoning questions. The answers follow the questions: the same sheet again with every answer in red.
Download the worksheets
Print on A4 portrait: every page carries the sheet twice, side by side, so you can cut down the middle and two pupils each get a half to stick in their books. Every question sits in its own box and pupils write their answers in their book. The answers follow the questions in the file: the same sheet again with every answer in red. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice, so you can change numbers, delete questions or add your own. There is no scaffolded version of this step yet.
Not scaffolded sheet
The same questions without the extra support. For pupils working at the expected standard: eight fluency questions first, then the reasoning questions.
Sample questions from this step
These are real questions from the first set of the sheet (two from the fluency page, two from the reasoning page). Open each one to see the answer.
- Write < or > in each box. Numbers to the right on a number line are greater.a) 8 ____ 2b) 4 ____ 2c) 7 ____ 3
Show the answer
>; >; >
- Write < or > in each box.a) 2 ____ 1b) −2 ____ 9c) −7 ____ 2
Show the answer
>; <; <
- Tiny is ordering these numbers, starting with the greatest: −3, −9, −8, 2, −7, −6.−9, −8, −7, −6, −3, 2Is Boba correct? Circle yes or no.Circle yes or no.Explain the mistake. Then write the numbers in the correct order.____
Show the answer
No; No. The numbers were put in order of the size of their digits and the minus signs were ignored. A negative number is less than 0, so −7 is less than −2.; 2, −3, −6, −7, −8, −9
- On Monday the temperature in London was 0 °C and in Rome it was −3 °C. On Tuesday London is 5 degrees colder than on Monday and Rome is 5 degrees warmer than on Monday. On Tuesday the temperature in Paris is warmer than London, but colder than Rome.What whole-number temperatures could Paris be? Find all the possible answers.____
Show the answer
−4, −3, −2, −1, 0, 1
What is on each sheet
- Fluency: eight questions that start easy and get harder, with the key skill of the step practised in different ways.
- Reasoning: questions with pictures, tables and number lines (spot the mistake, true or false and explain, puzzles with one answer, an open-ended task).
- Answers in the same file: the sheet again with every answer in red, so there is only one file to download.
- Boba characters give the instructions in speech bubbles. They are decoration only.
Why one set of questions?
- Everyone works on the same content, and support comes from scaffolds instead of different, easier tasks. This follows the mastery approach described by the NCETM and the thinking in Ofsted's 2021 mathematics research review.
- Worked examples and visual representations lighten the load for pupils who need it, as the Education Endowment Foundation describes.