Check out this simple DIY Montessori Math exercise to explain & teach the concept of even & odd numbers to children. Indirectly it also prepares the child for divisibility of numbers.
If you have been following this blog closely, I has posted about the work with Montessori beads done by my 3 year old son. If not, then you can click right HERE to check that in detail. That exercise was basically to associate digits to the quantities. Quantification is very important to understand.
He has been practicing that for long now so I thought it is a good time to expose him to the concept of even & odd numbers. For that I took out my versatile wooden digit counters from the below set & Montessori beads.
If you do not have wooden digit counters, you can easily make paper cards and write digits on them by hand.
Then I asked him to arrange the beads in the correct fashion. And he did it quite nicely & confidently. Check out in my Instagram video where he is counting & arranging the beads. It is hilarious!
After that I asked him to place the walnut shells in pairs below each digit as per their quantities. Walnut shells make great counters, right?
And then I told him a quick story. Those which are in pairs have friends to play with and they are called even numbers. Those which have one shell left alone are always looking for a friend to play with, they are called odd numbers.
And this little story gave him a good grasp of the concept! Listen to his answers in my Instagram video below when I asked him whether this number is odd or even for couple of numbers!
Purpose Of This Exercise
Direct
- To reinforce the knowledge that each number is made up of separate quantities.
- To indicate the odd and even numbers
Indirect
- To prepare for the divisibility of numbers
You can see the exact presentation of this Montessori exercise HERE.
Which Math exercise/activity have you done with your child recently? Share your blog post in comments below, I would love to see & get some inspiration.
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