Outside the room, B showed me this poster.

B explained how they learned “odd” and “even”.  The teacher asked them to count using their fingers.  For “1” you put up your pointer finger on one hand, and for “2” you put up your pointer finger from the other hand. If both fingers are up, then they are partners and you put them together.  Every number that has a partner (2, 4, 6) is “even” and every number that is alone is odd (1, 3, 5). You continue that way, middle fingers, ring fingers, and pinkies.  In the picture below, the number 5 is represented by the ring finger that does not have a partner.  Therefore, it is odd.

I know that these children are a bit older than many of yours and most of them already have a strong number sense, but I still like the idea of this even for younger children. First, I appreciate that the age board is a departure from the typical Birthday Boards that I usually see and second, the counting system is interesting as it reinforces one-to-one correspondence, is easy to do and can be expanded as children get older.

B explained to me that she was “odd” because she was 5.  I asked her what would happen next week when she celebrates her 6th birthday.  She looked at me like I was a simpleton and said, “I will be six and move to the other side of the board.”

Duh.

I was an assistant kindergarten teacher in a small school and we were all sitting on the rug at circle time.  The other teacher asked the children one of those broad questions you ask every day.  Only this time she worded the question just differently enough that they children had to consider what they already knew and then make adjustments about this new information in order to create sense out of the question and their answers.  She asked, “What day were you born?”  Not one child raised his/her hand.

Now, I knew that they all knew their birthdays.  We had talked about birthdays frequently and their own special day was even posted on the classroom “birthday board.” The teacher repeated the question.  One boy -Joseph- repeated the question to himself, just under his breath.  I started watching him.  He was saying, “What day were you born?  Born day, born day.”  All of a sudden, his face lit up like a beacon and he yelled out, “Born day is birthday!”  By asking a question just a little bit differently than you have before, you require the children to think in a new way.  That new way is how they construct knowledge.