Print out or draw images of blank number lines for students. Create one number line for each student in your class.
Distribute the number lines, as well as red, black and blue colored pencils to your students.
Draw a number line on the classroom chalk- or dry-erase board. Draw a long horizontal line and in the center of the line, write a vertical dash with the number zero below it.
Explain to students that what you have drawn on the board and what you have distributed to them is called a number line. Explain that you are going to be talking about integers. Provide them with a definition of the word and explain that the number line is used as a visual representation of integers.
Instruct students to use a black pencil to draw a vertical dash on the center of their number line and have them write a zero below the dash.
Explain to students that the zero marks the division between positive and negative numbers on a number line. Inform students that all numbers that fall to the right of the zero are positive numbers and all numbers that fall to the left of the zero are negative numbers.
Use a dry-erase marker or a piece of chalk that is a different color from the marker or chalk you used to write the zero on your number line. Write the word "positive" below the right side of the number line. Use the marker or chalk to draw vertical dashes along the number line and fill in the numbers below each dash. Instruct your students to use a red pencil to write the positive numbers along their own number lines.
Repeat the process on the opposite side of the number line. Use a different colored marker or chalk to write "negative" along the bottom of the left side of the number line. Draw dashes and fill in the negative integers. Instruct students to use a blue pencil to fill in the negative integers on their number line.