What are number line jumps?

Each problem, like 7 + 4, comes with a number line. Children start at the green dot, draw one jump for each one they add or take away, and write where they land.

Which ranges are there?

0 to 10, up to 20, and tens up to 100.

Are answer keys included?

Yes. The key draws the jumps and the answer.

Number Line Worksheets: Missing Numbers and Addition Jumps to 20 and 100

Seeing addition and subtraction

A number line shows adding as moving forward and taking away as moving back. It is the bridge from counting objects to mental maths.

Irish curriculum links

InfantsStage 1: adding makes a quantity bigger and taking away makes it smaller, shown as a move along a number line.
1st–2nd ClassStage 2: children choose and represent addition and subtraction strategies, and a number line is one of the main ways to show them.
NumerationCounting forwards and backwards in tens from any number is on the continuum, and the tens lines to 100 practise it.

Number lines are used in Irish classrooms from the infant classes up. A floor line or a washing line of number cards is a familiar sight, and children who have jumped along one find the drawn jumps easy to follow.

The same line later holds negative numbers, fractions and decimals in the senior classes. The NCCA toolkit even describes the base-ten system stretching without end in both directions, which a number line shows better than any chart.

Summarised in our own words from the Primary Mathematics Curriculum (2023) and the NCCA Mathematics Toolkit.