Counting dominoes

    Playing with some dominoes, Luke (5 years, 2 months) began by laying them flat in lined groups of the same design. A friend approached and mentioned that he had lots of dominoes, and Luke observed, “There’s more than 75 here.” Luke continued adding to the line-up for a few minutes, and the educator asked how he knew how many there were? Luke replied, “I counted them. Now I’ve added to it even more, so there’s probably more like 100!” 

This was self-initiated. Luke was very proud of his counting, and fetching paper and a pencil, proceeded to represent the number of dominoes he’d used by drawing a cross for each as he arranged them.

The taxonomy: Representing quantities that are counted; standard numerals

The maths: numbers; counting large quantity; estimating

How much?

   Peter (4 years, 11 months) was in the shop corner. His educator wanted to buy a cupcake but did not know how much money was needed. Peter began to write a number to show the price. Peter made marks with a pink texta pen to write 3 dollars.

The taxonomy: Early explorations with marks: attaching mathematical meanings

The maths: Money

Buster's birthday

Wes (5 years, 11 months) showed his educator what he was doing, explaining, “This is for Buster's birthday. He's the second oldest of all my teddies. He's turning ten. He's ten, so he gets 10 dollars. This is one of those money things what you get from K-Mart and you can buy whatever you want."

    His educator asked, "Do you mean a gift voucher?" And Wes replied,"Yeah, like the one I got for my birthday. It's a million and one dollars!"

The taxonomy: Early written numerals; numerals as labels; explorations with signs and symbols

The maths: Age; money; large number

 The taxonomy: Early written numerals

The maths: Counting numbers in order

Lexie's game

   Lexie (4 years, 2 months) wrote number labels for a game of hide and seek. She would hide them and then say to the people playing with her, “You need to find it now. You’re cold, getting warmer, getting warmer, hot, hot, hot!”  She wrote 6 labels, 1-6, and added the correct amount of dots under her number.  

   This was completely led by Lexie, who collected her own resources and only showed her educator as she was onto her final label. 

India’s pie

India (3 years, 11 months) was busy creating in the sandpit today. As her educator walked past, India caught her attention, inviting her to have a look at her pie. She had very carefully made her pie and cut it into 4 pieces. 

India: “Miss Dempsey, come and see what I made.”

Miss D: “What have you made?” India: “A pie!”

Miss D: “Yeah, and how many pieces have you cut your pie into?”

India was counting as she pointed to each piece: “1, 2, 3, 4!” 

Miss D: “You’ve cut your pie into quarters. 4 quarters. Who is going to eat the pie?”

India: “No-one!”

India’s educator introduced the concept of quarters after she had counted the four pieces. 

The taxonomy: Early explorations with marks – attaching mathematical meaning; representing quantities that are counted

The maths: Fractions