Opposites, odd and even numbers!

We've been using MEP Maths which so far, alhamdulillah I am finding great! Today, was the introduction of odd and even numbers, and opposits. Neither of these concepts I have disscussed with Khadeeja previously.

We began explaining opposites, which she looked at me with a blank face and said "I don't understand what you are saying!", and I thought to myself, how difficult is it to understand the what the opposite of something is!
"Opposite" is a new word for Khadeeja which needed explaining and understanding. So, I gave her examples, but using the word "different" in place of opposite.
So, for example, I explained that small is different to big, tall is different to short etc. I then asked what is different to fat, wide, above, rights, top etc, and alhamdulillah she gave its opposite. I explained that this is what "Opposite means".

We then went on to odd and even numbers. Again, a concept which she had not worked with previously.
So we went back to the very basics!

We used the unifix cubes to help give a physical visual example of odds and evens.
I took 1 cube and asked Khadeeja to do the same. I explained that 1 by itself can not be split into 2 groups, so 1 is by itself without any partner to hold hands with. So 1 is odd.

We then took 2 cubes, and demonstrated that we can split 2 into 2 equal groups that can hold hands, so 2 is even.

Then took 3, and again demonstrated splitting into 2 groups, asking if we could divide 3 into 2 groups that are the same? 1 cube was left over by itself, so I explained that it doesn't have a partner to hold hands with, its all by itself and is sad. So number 3 is an odd number.
We carried on up to 5, and then did 10.


I then laid out the cubes in numbers from 1 to 10 which Khadeeja then placed the number labels (to help with the next part of the activity of identifying odd and even).

Next, I asked Khadeeja to tell me if each number was odd or even, using the cubes to split each number into 2 groups in order to visually identify which could be split equally and which could not.



We then took some beads (which her friend had given her) and I asked her to place a bead on all of the odd numbers, and then the even numbers.
We identified the pattern, that the odd and even numbers alternated.



Next, using the MEP lesson plan, I drew on the white board a number ladder from 1 - 12, which we used to identity the odd and even numbers - counting only the odd numbers aloud and the evens silently, and vice versa.

Finally, in Khadeejas Maths exercise book, we put a table with 2 columns headed odd and even, which Khadeeja had to write the numbers in the correct columns

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