Being Odd is Fun!

This is a picture of one of my first graders exploring even and odd on a homemade (and tasty) arithmetic rack.

So I wandered over to Jill's blog to see what I could learn, and guess what?! We're on the same page in math, too! Both of us taught an Everyday Math lesson on even and odd numbers to our first graders. It is fun to see how we teach the same lesson, but in two different ways. Last year I was lucky enough to work with Purdue University Calumet's math gurus (shout out to Diana!) and add some inquiry math to my teaching. When it came to even and odd, I decided to draw upon this and introduce the arithmetic rack on Wednesday. I did not tell my kiddos what even and odd meant. Instead, I represented even and odd numbers on the arithmetic rack and let them discover even and odd. It is so hard sometimes not to just tell them, but I worked hard at keeping quiet.  They turned and talked to their partners and kept working at their definition and understanding of the concept. It was fun to watch the kids' faces light up as they discovered the meanings on their own!

They were so excited about the rack that I had to promise to let them use their own the next day.  They actually groaned when the math lesson was over! Well, we had a really great week, so I decided to combine two favorites...math and snack. My kiddos LOVE breakfast snack, so I made a late night run Wednesday night and got some Pull N Peels to go with our Apple Jacks and on Thursday we made arithmetic racks. Yup, we played with our food! We used the orange and green cereal pieces to make two rows of 10, one on each of two strings of licorice. Then the kids played with the concept of even and odd, and we even made videos of our explanations. EVERYONE wanted their moment in the spotlight, which meant everyone was engaged!

I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging... I'm just excited. I didn't expect the rack to be such a big hit, but when it was, I had to capitalize on it. On top of that, I have the best parents that send in so much snack for the class that we have enough laying around to inspire spur of the moment lessons! Later when I passed out fruit snacks, kids were doing even and odd on their own. Now the question is... How do I keep this momentum going into the next math concept?