What a good way to explain the equal sign?

Answer 1

The equal sign is a statement that says that anything on the left side of the sign is equal (represents the same number) as anything on the right side.

For example:

5 = 2 + 3 (this is a true statement)

1 = 2 (I am stating that both are equal, which is not a true statement)

x + 5 = 7 (an "open sentence", which becomes true if you replace a specific value for the variable "x", in this case, 2).