Heads or Tails?

You are being given a two-sided counter. The red

side counts as +1. The yellow side counts as -1.
You and your partner will both have 20 turns. The
person with the highest score at the end of 20
turns is the winner.

When you were scoring your game, you were

really adding integers. Every time you flipped a
red side, you added +1. Every time you flipped a
yellow side, you added -1.
Lets see if I can beat the highest score!
Red (+1)
Yellow (-1)

(Add the appropriate counter after every toss.)

O O

The Zero Principle

Counters of opposite colours cancel each other
out. If I put one positive with one negative, I really
have zero.

(+1) + (-1) = 0

Try these ones under the Document Camera.

1.
2.
3.
4.

(+3) + (-9)
(-5) + (+7)
(+1) + (-9)
(-6) + (-4)

What addition sentence do these models help

represent?
(-6) + (+4) = (-2)

(-1) + (+6) = (+5)

Try these ones on your own. Model the

expression with counters and solve the addition.
1. (-7) + (+7)
2. (+3) + (-4)
3. (-3) + (-4)
4. (-3) + (+4)
5. (-8) + (+7)
6. (-20) + (+19)