Teaching the Concept of Even and Odd Numbers

Today, Aidan (4th grade) was learning about remainders in division, so I thought that it would be a good time to introduce even and odd numbers to Gresham (1st grade).  Gresham has already mastered skip counting by two’s, but we haven’t done skip counting by two starting with the number 1 or discussed the difference between even and odd numbers.  I made a list of the numbers 1-20 on a piece of paper.  We got out our math cubes, and I told Gresham that we were going to pretend that the cubes were cookies.  For each number of cookies, we would check to see if they could be divided evenly between two people.  We tried 1 cookie.  Nope, that one didn’t work.  Gresham put an “X” on it.  We tried 2.  That one worked, so he circled it.  By the time Gresham got to 6, he said, “Hey, this is making a pattern!  “X” one, then circle one, then “X” one!”

Gresham decided to add on to his list. (It’s always great when math feels like a game and they want to keep going!)

At the dinner table tonight, I asked Gresham to tell Daddy what he learned about even and odd numbers, and he said that odd numbers will always have one leftover when you divide them between two people.  I think he’s got it!