How to Teach Kids Even and Odd Numbers

The concept of odd and even numbers can be a very abstract one for young children. In my years of teaching, I developed a technique to make it more concrete for them. It is simple and fun.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Counters
• Paper
• Crayons

1. First either get out small items that can be counted like beans or pennies or a large sheet of paper with crayons.
2. Start by telling your child a story about one little boy or girl that goes to the park. Take out one bean, or draw one person on the paper.
3. Ask your child if the person/bean is happy or sad? They are probably sad because they are alone. Sad numbers are odd numbers.
4. Then explain that another child came along to the park. Draw another child next to the first one. Ask your child now if they are happy or sad? They should be happy because they have someone to play with. That means two is an even number. Even numbers are happy numbers.
5. Continue this pattern but leave a significant space between pairs of children in the drawing or beans being counted so that the child can easily see pairs. This can go on as high as your child can count.
6. When you ask from now on if a number is even or odd, your child can tell the story of the children who go to the park to figure it out.