With little sign of the global economic crisis being solved, knowledge of negative numbers is going to be important for some time yet. Here are the top 10 resources to ensure a sub-zero knowledge base.

1. Full house

What is it? A whole-class bingo activity to get students working with negative numbers

What users say: “This is just what I needed to reinforce calculations with negative numbers with my class of 11-year-olds.”

bit.lyBingoGame

2. Negative recall

What is it? Student-friendly revision notes on the topic of negative numbers

What users say: “Great revision notes. The slides can be adapted to use as teaching material.”

bit.lyNegativeRecall

3. Less is more

What is it? An online maths game that introduces subtraction with positive and negative numbers

What users say “Great fun as well as really useful.”

bit.lyPlayYourSignsRight

4. Random testing

What is it? An Excel resource that randomly generates BIDMAS questions, including those using negative numbers

What users say: “Brilliant. Good for doing quick questions on mini-whiteboards.”

bit.lyBIDMASRandomiser

5. Getting directions

What is it? Activities illustrating the effect of operations on directed numbers

What users say: “I really like this for encouraging students to think a bit more deeply about negative numbers.”

bit.lyDirectedDeliberations

6. Pyramid posers

What is it? An exercise that challenges students to identify patterns within a pyramid of numbers

What users say: “This is a great starter activity. I especially like the question ideas.”

bit.lyPyramidPosers

7. Super spreadsheets

What is it? An interactive spreadsheet with games and questions to enable students to master negative numbers

What users say: “Very clever! Looking forward to using this. It can be sent to the students so they each have an interactive worksheet with instant feedback.”

bit.lySuperSpreadsheets

8. Positively negative

What is it? Worksheets, activities and lesson plans on the topic of negative numbers

What users say “Very useful for my Year 8 students. An excellent range of activities based on negative numbers.”

bit.lyNegativeNumbers

9. Minus points

What is it? A simple starter activity based on the game of ping-pong

What users say: “Creative and really engaging.”

bit.lyMinusPoints

10. Jigsaw japes

What is it? A Tarsia jigsaw activity featuring positive and negative numbers

What users say: “This resource is also ideal as a pairedgrouped activity. My favourite twist is to insert deliberate mistakes or leave answers out for students to complete themselves.”

bit.lyJigsawJapes.