M&M Math: Odds & Evens
The children used a container of M & Ms to help understand the concept of odd and even. To begin the lesson the children listened to the story Even Steven and Odd Todd by Kathryn Cristaldi. It told of two boys. Steven only liked things that were even numbered and Todd liked things that were odd numbered.

After reading the story we discussed how we could tell whether a number was odd or even. If you take a number of objects and make pairs and there are none left over than the number is even. However, if there is one left over, it is the odd one so the number is odd. We also explained that you could take a number and make them into partners. If there was an extra one who didn’t have a partner than the number was odd.
The children were each given a small read container filled with 20 M & Ms. The first thing the children did was to group them by color. Then they recorded the numbers on their paper. Then they figured out if it was odd or even and recorded that information. After the individual children completed their form, they added up all the colors of the M & Ms of the children at their table. They completed another paper.

Probably the part they liked most was being able to eat the things that helped them understand the concept of odd and even.