Need help teaching odd/even

[golfcartmama]

We use Saxon 1 and supplement a little with MM1. My daughter just doesn't get the odd/even thing. I have tried everything I can think of. She does 'get' it. Any ideas or can you point me to a resource that might help?

[Jay3fer]

Hmm... we used sheets where you circle pairs of things and then see if one is left over, but [eta: since it sounds like books/worksheets aren't working for this subject, which is understandable at that age] you could do this in real life with any kind of pairing activity.

 

Socks are great - just lay out a random-looking bunch on the table and have her pair them up. If there's one left over, that's the ODD sock. If she's a girly girl, you could also present something like have a bunch of toys or dolls get married and if there's one single at the end of the ceremonies, that's the ODD doll. I'd say that in K she doesn't need to get it on a really deep level, but understanding the word ODD would be nice. Show her in real life (if you haven't already!) and she probably will.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Jay3fer

[spaceman]

I agree with pairing real objects as well. I probably wouldn't even do more of that during school time than your curriculum has laid out-just do it in real life.

 

Anytime you are doing things with a number of objects, pair them up to see if they are even or odd.

 

MathTacular has a short video where he claps his hands, then pats his legs for every other number. If it ends one way, it's even, the other is odd. You could try something like this.

 

Also: My son understood the concept of even/odd before the vocabulary, could this be true for you? What I did, was talked a lot about the word "odd" and it's other meanings (strange) and we incorporated that into our daily language. A few days later, I made it a point to split things in half and we saw how they were "even". Then went back to even and odd and it was easy.

[sixpence1978]

My DD also did not get odd/even. No amount of using manipulatives to show that there is an extra with an odd number really helped it to sink in. She still struggles a little bit now, but what worked was this:

 

I took a hundred chart and had her count by 2's while coloring in the number. Then she looked at the numbers she had colored in and found the pattern that they all end with 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0. The visual of the colored in columns really seemed to help. I briefly went over again why they are even. Then I had her count by odds (start at one and skip count by 2's). We colored those in with a different color. She then saw that the odd numbers all ended with 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9.

 

I then asked her which column a higher number would fall in (say 732). She would pick the 2 column and could then tell me that it was an even number. We did this with a few larger numbers.

 

We left our colored hundred chart on the wall for a few months to let it really sink in. Now she only occasionally will ask, "Even...that's 2,4,6,8,0 ... right?". But for the most part, this method stuck with her.

[Ellie]

She's just 5ish, right? I would expect a 5yo not to understand odd and even yet. She'll get it over time. :-)

[mrs.m]

She's just 5ish, right? I would expect a 5yo not to understand odd and even yet. She'll get it over time. :-)

 

:iagree:This will be retaught every year in most programs.

[golfcartmama]

She's a younger 6 yo. I will try with the pairs and then keep going. She just glazes over when I ask about them!

[LAS in LA]

DD6 seems to catch on to the idea that even means everyone has a buddy and odd means someone is left out. I guess this is sort of negative (!) but she did understand it.

[threeturn]

We used a poem from a Scholastic book of math poems. It was all about ants who lined up in pairs when marching around. If there was one left over at the back he was "Oddly Ant." You could make your own little story about the ants and where they go and what they do.

 

We would have groups of ants going all these different crazy places to get crazy things. I would tell her the number of ants and then she would line them up (we used colored stones). If there was an oddly ant at the back, she would know that number was odd.

 

After we did that some we played some Right Start card games for even and odd.

 

We did all of this at a young 6 and she got it pretty well. Now at 6.5 I can ask her if a number is even or odd and she can tell me.

[stripe]

Sort laundry together (socks in particular).

 

I used the words "odd" and "even" repeatedly, like, "everything pairs up evenly," or "the odd one left over is..."

[MellowYellow]

Thanks for asking this.

 

We are also doing Saxon 1 and learning evens and odds. My DS can count by evens to 10 and then gets confused. He is having a hard time with odd numbers too. These are all great ideas. Thanks!

 

What Saxon lesson are you on?

[KristenR]

My dd finally grasped it better when we demonstrated with pairs of shoes. (We have three little girls in the house and PLENTY of shoes to go around!)

 

After she grasped the concept we started playing this fun hand game. She doesn't seem to have a problem with it now.

[Walking-Iris]

I agree about grouping pairs. We did this with crayons (but you could use counting sticks or bears) First I told them that two together were friends and one by itself was missing it's friend. After they got the hang of grouping a handful of crayons into pairs and giggling about the odd man out, I would grab a handful of crayons and just toss them in a jumble and they would group them into pairs. They then counted how many crayons all together. If everybody had a friend they were even, if someone was lonely they were odd. So after grouping 6 crayons into pairs they could see everyone had a friend so 6 is even---if there were 9 crayons, someone was missing a friend so 9 is odd. Sometimes we would play this game at random times with our stuffed animals or trains etc.

 

But I suggest keeping it low key and fun---a game. No drilling. They will start to internalize this concept and do this mentally. And it does get reviewed and expanded upon at each grade level.

[kalanamak]

I did dots, and the pairs got to hold hands (I drew in little arms). Oh, first I drew faces on eggs and put them in the carton. The pairs got to kiss.

 

We also did a foot thing. Stand and stamp feet one TWO. Jump sideways and stamp on and then the other, again, saying three FOUR. Etc. After he was good at that I'd yell stop, and if one foot was still in the air, it was odd, and if both were on the ground, even.

 

Games like that. HTH

[arghmatey]

Take the group of manipulatives representing the number and sort them into pairs. Usually I've seen the bears used to get this concept across. If the bears are all partnered up - i.e. each has a friend - the number is even. If not, the number is odd, because it's odd that in a group, no one has a friend. (that last is just a story line to give the child a memory hook) Stay with small numbers for a while.

 

A combination of the above suggestion and reciting that "evens end in 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8; everyone else is odd" worked here. We would say this a few times before doing an exercise involving even and odd.

 

ETA: Pintetest has at least a few ideas on even and odd. Check it out.

[Canadianmumof5]

My DD also did not get odd/even. No amount of using manipulatives to show that there is an extra with an odd number really helped it to sink in. She still struggles a little bit now, but what worked was this:

 

I took a hundred chart and had her count by 2's while coloring in the number. Then she looked at the numbers she had colored in and found the pattern that they all end with 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0. The visual of the colored in columns really seemed to help. I briefly went over again why they are even. Then I had her count by odds (start at one and skip count by 2's). We colored those in with a different color. She then saw that the odd numbers all ended with 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9.

 

I then asked her which column a higher number would fall in (say 732). She would pick the 2 column and could then tell me that it was an even number. We did this with a few larger numbers.

 

We left our colored hundred chart on the wall for a few months to let it really sink in. Now she only occasionally will ask, "Even...that's 2,4,6,8,0 ... right?". But for the most part, this method stuck with her.

 

We are doing this as well and so far so good. We are on Saxon 1, Lesson #62. He gets the evens but struggles with the odds. We just repeat them a few times every day. It gets easier.

[kolamum]

Try using terms FAIR & UNFAIR. :D It clicks quicker.

 

Say things like, "Would it be FAIR or UNFAIR if I gave you 2 cookies and sister 4 cookies."

 

I'm just gonna say we learned really quick using this method. ;) After a week of discussing and picture drawing we moved on to using the proper signs. Only, we used them as mouths. Saying that it was a greedy guts and it alway sate the biggest amount. ;)

 

A month after that then I used proper terms. 8 is greater then 4. etc.

[Walking-Iris]

Try using terms FAIR & UNFAIR. :D It clicks quicker.

 

Say things like, "Would it be FAIR or UNFAIR if I gave you 2 cookies and sister 4 cookies."

 

I'm just gonna say we learned really quick using this method. ;) After a week of discussing and picture drawing we moved on to using the proper signs. Only, we used them as mouths. Saying that it was a greedy guts and it alway sate the biggest amount. ;)

 

A month after that then I used proper terms. 8 is greater then 4. etc.

 

yeah we did the alligator always eats the bigger number when doing greater than less than.