Catherine (4 years, 7 months) chose to do

this drawing on her first day of school: it

shows her sister who was two and a half

years old on that day (her mum said there

had been a discussion about this at breakfast).

Catherine used approximately half of the

numeral ‘2’ (reversed here) to represent

the fraction ‘½’. Her understanding appeared

to be confirmed the following day, when she

wrote that she was ‘4½’ in a similar way,

writing a half of the numeral ‘4’ (not shown

here): she had developed a personal symbol

to convey the meaning of the fraction in this

context.

The maths: numerals, fractions

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

This play began several weeks earlier,                        

when Mason was playing with a real

calculator. At first he played with it as

a digital game, saying excitedly,

"Fighting games, Video games!" then

decided instead to use a small note-

book to make his own 'paper calculators'.

Alfie (4 years, 3 months) watched Mason

and decided to join in, writing shapes on

a page, then counting them, "Six, seven,

eight, nine, I done a number 10".

    It seemed to be the numerals on the

calculator that held his interest.

The maths: numerals

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

Isaac, (4 years, 6 months) was  playing

builders, and taking a play cheque wrote

a reversed and inverted letter 'a' to signify 

“£500.00”, the amount he said was "for 

all the jobs I've done at my house".

The maths: Money, quantity

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

Molly (3 years, 11 months) decided to write

some numbers, referring to her signs as "7,

6 and number 8".

The maths: Numbers

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

Jay (3 years, 8 months was drawing, and 

added some letter-like signs, followed by

 a curved shape that she joined. Looking

at it carefully she said in a surprised voice

"Eight!", then turned to her teacher and

remarked, "My brother's eight".

The maths: Numbers

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

Mason's (4 years 7 months) imagination 

took him to the world of film heroes and

computer games and he invested his 'spy

gadget' with special technological powers,

and drew on his considerable knowledge

of passwords and controls. Taking a pen,

he wrote a string of letters and numerals,

reading "SK, 714bp10". Lifting it to cover

his face he explained "SK is to keep the

password safe. To switch it on you have to

say '714bp10'" Asked  if there was a way

to switch it off, he replied excitedly, "Yeah!

you have to read it backwards, promptly

reading "10 pb417".

The maths: Numbers

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals

Tiyanni (3 years, 11 months) was playing

'houses' with her friends, in the play house

outside. She decided to write the number

of her house, '89', and pointing  to the large,

almost enclosed circle on the right, explained,

"That's the number 8, and the other's

number 9".

The maths: Numbers

The Taxonomy: Early written numerals