By second grade, most students have a great grasp on odd and even numbers. However, there is always a small handful who need a little intervention. With December being a shorter month, it’s a great focus for intervention groups. Here’s what I use to keep the interest level high with my struggling students while we practice, practice, practice!
I don’t know about you, but I have had a small handful of students who can identify odd and even numbers, but cannot explain why (other than to recite one of the poems they have been taught). Here’s a great tool I use to help students:
Draw and Find the Perfect Pair
During small group instruction, I like to keep students engaged with hands-on activities and games.
Stocking Sort
I place the stocking labels on lunch sacks. The sorting cards have numbers and pictures on them. Students draw a card, identify it as even or odd, and place it into the bag. Sometimes we’ll do speed sorts to see if students can get faster and faster.
While I’m working with my small groups, the other students are working independently on games or practice pages. Here is what students might be doing:
Stocking Spin, Tally, & Graph
Normally I place this practice page into a sheet protector and have students use dry erase markers so the page can be used over and over again. However, I also use it as a one-time page for my small group:
The A-MAZE-ING Stocking Race
There are actually two versions of this page: one for odds and one for evens. If you have students who tend to use their neighbor’s brain instead of their own, you could alternate the pages to keep things interesting!
The Stockings Were Hung
This one is great for practice or for pre/post assessments.
All of the pages mentioned above (and more) can be found in my Stuff Those Stockings pack.You can read more about it by clicking here or on the picture below:
Your "using their neighbor's brain" observation totally cracked me up! A couple of weeks ago I was checking science journals and noticed someone used the word "latte" (and, no, we were not investigating coffee drinks!) and then shortly after saw it again…in his neighbor's journal! Had to have the old "do your own work" speech.