This is a great game to play for about 10 minutes at the beginning of your next maths lesson from the math to teach students to read numbers and identify odd and even numbers guru himself Michael Ymer.  It is suitable for students from Prep to Year 6.

Two students place a deck of cards in front of them face down. Kings, Jacks, Tens and Jokers  removed. The Queens represent zero and the Aces represent one. Students take it in turns taking one card at a time. Before they flip it over and read out the number they guess whether or not it is odd or even. [Children can draft a sheet with odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other side and place a counter on their guess before flipping the card. This stops arguments about what was and wasn’t said.] If the child guesses correctly he/she keeps the card. If he guessed incorrectly the card is given to his/her partner Keep playing until the cards have all been used. The student with the most cards wins that game. Cards are shuffled and a new game begins.

Teachers may wish to assess a student’s ability to read numbers by asking him/her to press a number on the calculator and read it. If successful press another and so on. This will tell you if a child can read 2, 3, or more digit numbers and can help pair students appropriately. Allow children to play game up to one digit further than they can read so that learning can be extended.

Variations

Play the game with more than one card. The focus is not identifying odd and even numbers as children read larger numbers. The focus is correctly reading and saying 2,3,4,5 etc digit numbers.