We spent a good part of the last week learning more about odd and even numbers. We discuss odd and even every day in calendar so they had background before we did this number investigation.
First, we did
an Odd Todd and Even Steven activity inspired by The First Grade Parade. We made some numbers using marshmallows and then paired the marshmallows to see if it was an odd number or an even number. After we identified the numbers as either or even, we wrote the numbers down and placed them under Odd Todd if the number was odd or under Even Steven if the number was even. Some of the numbers we used were 16, 14, 22, 9, 6, 7, 5, and 19. (Of course, I have no pictures to show for any of the above events; I'll work on that!).
After that activity, we coded to the numbers we discussed on a hundreds chart (one part of our calendar time is coding a hundreds chart with red for odd and blue for even, so they were very familiar with and ready to do it during this lesson--and, again, no pictures). It looked something like this:
We coded the numbers but didn't see a pattern. I then challenged them to complete the rest of the first three rows on the hundreds chart (and they were VERY excited about that). They were instructed to build the number using marshmallows, figure out it was odd or even, and then code it. I do have pictures of this part!! Notice how each student sorted them:
They did such a great job!! As you can see, not all of them used the work mat as it was intended and that's okay! Several of them needed the graphic organizer though, so it was good for those ones. We discussed it afterward and realized that the pattern on the chart was an AB pattern and that it was just like the pattern on our calendar hundreds chart. They also talked about how if you count by 2s (starting at 0) then you will only say even numbers. They made all sorts of connections here!!
To further reinforce, we completed another investigation on the next day. I put a random amount of items into different cups.
birthday candles, two-color counters, buttons, pencils, dice, hippo conuters, paper clips, etc.
The students counted the items and recorded the number of items as either odd or even. Pretty simple, but GREAT practice (counting and identifying odd and even).
Next year, I will actually flip-flop the coding activity and the cup activity. I didn't this year simply because I didn't plan the cup activity until after we had completed the coding.
Here is the work mat and the recording sheet from the cup activity. Grab the freebie by clicking below:
Thanks for stopping by! And if you are looking for additional activities to teach odd and even be sure to check out my Odd and Even Numbers Pack!!
