Kaia and I are wrapping up her school year this week and next, and we thought we’d learn a little about negative numbers to end the year.  We talked about things less than zero, looked at thermometers and time lines.  Then she drew a number line from -5 to 5.  I gave her a few dollars of monopoly money and set up a little store.  If she wanted to buy something but didn’t have enough money, she’d borrow from the mom bank.  She started off with $5 and stood on the number 5.  She wanted to buy a head band worth $8.  So she borrowed $3 and moved back to the -3, because she now owed me $3.  Then she would ‘earn’ money somehow (birthday, chores) and move up again.   We’ve been over this concept of owing before, but it was nice to put it into action and then write the equation on the board so that she could see how 5-8 could equal -3.  She enjoyed it so much that she ended up playing store for over an hour and a half!