Here is a Jamboard to introduce the concept of absolute value (make a copy and you can edit – see photo at bottom of this post).
Start with prior knowledge of how many houses a child is from home. Emphasize that the number of houses is positive.
Change the setting from a row of houses to the number line and refer to the distance from home.
Change from distance to absolute value and emphasize that the symbol indicate distance from home and is called absolute value.
The house is removed and introduce the concept of the distance from 0.
Finally, convert from boys to the numbers and the distance from 0 for a number. Emphasize that the distance is positive, even for negative numbers.
To make a copy of the Jamboard.
