Up and Down the Number Line

In math class, I like to incorporate writing as much as possible. It deepens the child's understanding of the math concepts and it allows children to express themselves in a more creative mathematical way! We are currently exploring using positive and negative numbers to go above and below zero. To help understand this concept, we have been using skyscrapers and elevators. These skyscrapers are very unique because every floor is created just for kids! Here is a story called "The Elevator Power" written by Johnny who is one of the students in my third grade math class.
I'm Johnny...I live in a hotel that's NOT normal. There's an elevator that has super powers. I live on the 12th floor and there are 15 floors in all. Today, my buddy Coleman and I, have to run errands so we can go to a very cool place! We had to go to the 14th floor (12 + 2 = 14). When we got to the 14th floor, the elevator door opened and we were at the "floating flop, candy stop". Everything was floating...the candy, the tables, chairs, and even we began floating! When we found what we were looking for...super caramel power bars. Now it's time to go 7 floors down (14 - 7 = 7). We had to pick up our uniforms for the very cool place, so we stopped at the "flame fire clothes drier". Our clothes were on FIRE! When we finally put the flames out we decided to leave immediately...this place was too HOT to stick around much longer. Our next stop was "the come to life art studio". It was 3 floors up (7 + 3 = 10). When we got there, all the pictures were alive. We painted ours for the team. Mine was a bunch of monsters having a race. In the painting, the monsters ran all over my painting...COOL! Coleman's was a painting of him and a monster having a race with the monster on his back...COOLER! Now it was time to go to the 2nd floor (10 - 8 = 2). We arrived at the "Big BOOM Weapon Store". We would need battle back gear for the cool special place. Our last stop was on the 3rd floor (2 + 1 = 3). We bought monster seat belts at the "protection store for monster dudes". It was finally time to head to our special place! (3 - 2 = 1). There were monsters EVERYWHERE!!! We weren't scared because we were prepared! Here is the number sentence to represent his changes along the way: 12 + 2 - 7 + 3 - 8 + 1 - 2 = 1. The net change of the sequence of numbers equals +1.
Click on the image to view his illustration that matches his mathematical adventure!