Even & Odd Number Millipedes

Make these adorable millipedes and have fun learning even and odd numbers while playing games. They are super easy to make and you do not need a lot of supplies!

For the millipedes you will need:

• 22 Toilet rolls
• Paint in primary colours
• Pipe cleaners
• Googly eyes
• Piece of pink foam or cardboard
• Glue
• Marker pens

What to do:

Paint the primary colours first, paint 4 red, 4 yellow and 3 blue toilet rolls. Explain that we can mix primary colours to make our secondary colours. Mix yellow and red, paint 3 rolls orange, mix blue and yellow and paint 4 rolls green. Mix blue and red and paint the last 4 rolls purple.

Let the paint dry and arrange the primary colours in a pattern of red, yellow, blue. Keep 1 yellow roll aside to make the face. Construct the millipede by punching a small hole on the edge of the roll. Thread a piece of pipe cleaner through and attach to the next roll. Do not tie until all the holes are threaded. (it makes assembly easier to tie once all the legs are done.) Cut the roll that was set aside for the face to form the mouth. Add googly eyes, a tongue and feelers. Once the millipede is assembled, write the even numbers 2-20 on the individual segments. Add patterns using marker pens too make your millipede a bit more interesting.

Repeat the same process with the secondary colours and write the odd numbers 1-19 on the segments.

Games

Feed The Millipede

We named our millipedes Even Pete and Odd Milly

This is a game for two players. You will need a dice, a feel bag, paper and pen. Write numbers 1-20 on a piece of paper and cut out. Put the numbers in the feel bag. On another piece of paper, write the even numbers 2-20 in a row and odd numbers 1-19 in the next row.

Players roll the dice, highest number chooses a millipede and starts the game. Player one takes a number out of the feel bag. If his millipede is Even Pete and he chooses an even number, he feeds his millipede. If he choose an odd number, the number goes back in the bag and it’s Player 2’s turn. Cross out the corresponding number on the number sheet as players feed their millipedes. First player to have fed all his numbers to his millipede wins.

Millipede Race

This is great to play outside but if you are stuck indoors, you can use the floor or a large table. Draw the squares on a plain coloured table cloth using chalk which will wash out again. This is a game for two players and you will need a dice.

Draw two rows of 20 squares each, along side each other. Mark the start and finish places. Line the millipedes up at the Start point. Players roll the dice, highest score chooses a millipede and starts the game.

Player one rolls the dice, if he chose Even Pete, he can only move forward if the dice landed on an even number. He moves the number of spaces as rolled on the dice. If the dice landed on an odd number, he stays in the same place and it’s Player 2’s turn. Player 2 needs to roll an odd number in order to move forward, if he rolls an even number, it’s player 1’s turn again.

First Millipede to get to the finish line wins.

Fun to make AND learn even and odd numbers with toilet roll millipedes!