Maths Challenge - Odd and Even Investigation

Our class challenge in Maths this week is to work out a trick by noticing patterns. 

The Challenge: What is the trick to knowing if a number is odd or even without having to always work it out?

So far the things people have noticed are...

• A way of testing if a number is EVEN is to share it between two groups. If each group has the same amount it is even. We say they have an even amount.

For example, 

If you go to the lolly shop and you and your friend share the lollies...One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me, etc, etc and you each have the same amount of lollies once you have shared them all out, you bought an even number of lollies and you are both happy. Someone is going to be disappointed if you bought an odd number because someone will get more and the other will have less. 

QUESTION FOLKS: How many more does one person have when the number is odd? Is it always the same difference???????

 Monday

• " Two odd numbers make an even number because 3+3=6 and 5+5=10 but I also know 4+4=8 and four is an even number." Tristan
• Samuel worked out 6+6=12, so he said, "two even numbers make an even number".

What else could you test boys?

Here is a photo of a few children working out which numbers to ten are odd and which are even.

(Don't worry the chalk on the carpet comes off :)






UPDATE
It looks like a bomb exploded on our whiteboard, but here are our accumulated thoughts. We added to our brainstorm over the week. A storm it was! Our learning and understanding grew and we bounced off each others light bulb moments. Remember you can make the photo bigger by clicking on it :)
 

Even though our focus on odd and even numbers is over we are continuing to notice patterns with odd and even numbers.