Distance Check

This worksheet gives students straightforward practice evaluating absolute value expressions with positive numbers, negative numbers, and zero. Students solve examples such as |-8|, |12|, |-15|, |0|, and |-40|, learning that the bars around a number ask for its distance from zero, not whether the original number is positive or negative. The activity strengthens integer sense, absolute value notation, number-line thinking, positive and negative numbers, and basic magnitude while helping students avoid the common mistake of carrying the negative sign into the answer. It is especially useful for grades 6-7 students who are being introduced to integers and need simple repetition before moving into comparisons, equations, and real-world applications.

Learning Goals

• Understand Absolute Value: Students learn that absolute value tells how far a number is from zero.
• Evaluate Positive and Negative Integers: Learners see that |7| and |-7| both equal 7 because both numbers are seven units from zero.
• Recognize Zero: Students reinforce that |0| = 0 because zero is no distance from itself.
• Read Absolute Value Notation: The vertical bars become familiar mathematical symbols rather than something students confuse with parentheses.

Classroom & Home Use

• Easy for Parents to Explain: A useful phrase is, “Ignore which side of zero the number is on and ask how far away it is.”
• Good Confidence Builder: The worksheet keeps the task focused on one clear skill before adding harder integer concepts.
• Helps Prevent Sign Errors: Students repeatedly see that absolute value answers are never negative.
• Useful for Quick Practice: It works well for homework, warm-ups, centers, intervention, or homeschool lessons.
• Prepares for Later Integer Work: Absolute value appears in comparing integers, coordinate planes, equations, distance, and real-world data.

The most important idea in this worksheet is that absolute value is about distance, not direction. Negative numbers, positive numbers, zero, magnitude, notation, and number sense all work together as students solve each expression. For parents, an example such as |-8| is easy to explain: -8 is eight spaces away from zero, so its absolute value is 8. That simple idea clears up a lot of confusion because students often think the negative sign must stay in the answer. In classroom and homeschool settings, this worksheet gives students a solid foundation before they begin using absolute value in more advanced integer problems.