- Representing quantities that ARE counted
Tommy (4 years, 7 months) had just returned from a visit to the local zoo, and were excitedly talking about their favourite animal, and their teacher suggested that they find out which was the mort popular. Armed with clipboards they circulated amongst their peers. Tommy decided to represent each child's response with a cross, finally pointing to the lion on the left, which had been by six children.
The maths: Counting
The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted.
Shakkai (4 years, 10 months) drew four eyes on his drawing of his dad, and he and his friend roared with laughter. Shakkai said "I'm going to add another eye ... Look! he has five now!"
The maths: Counting
The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted.
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Stanley's shoesNine children had been playing pretend families, and had removed their shoes. It was almost time for lunch and their teacher asked how many shoes they'd need to find? Fetching paper and pens, Stanley drew a horseshoe shape to represent each pair of legs and feet. Then counting in twos, he wrote the numbers from 2 - 16. Recounting The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted. The maths: Counting in twos |
Tim and the logsTim was in the garden, lifting some fence posts onto a trolley. He spent a long time transporting the logs to another area, and later his teacher wondered how many logs he'd moved? His response was to represent the many logs, and his teacher wrote each number as he pointed to them. Finally Tim explained, "They're very long", and "This says"Do not move my logs and do not park here". The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that The maths: Counting |
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Saja's countingSaja wrote these lines, then counted them in Arabic (her first language): Wahid, ithan, thelatha, araba'a, khumsa", The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted. The maths: Counting |
Lucas (4 years, 6 months) brought in a toy octopus with numerous tentacles, and this sparked his question, "I wonder if there are more tentacles than my mum's age?" At first he tried counting each tentacle but soon found it too difficult to keep track of those he'd already counted, and also asked a friend to hold some of the of the tentacles. Next he used some small paperclips, although they kept falling off. Seeing Lucas's difficulty, his teacher offered him some larger 'bulldog' clips, encouraging Lucas to reconsider his previously random groupings, and now grouped them in tens. When all the tentacles were held in the bulldog clips, he counted that he had 12 groups of ten - certainly more than his mum's age!
* Lucas wrote 10s up to eighty, then counted orally.
The maths: Counting
The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted.
Jenna (3 years, 9 months) drew and counted raindrops in the graphics area. Perhaps the coloured pens reminded her of raindrops, or this may have been an interest of hers, since many children love to draw rainbows. Jenna finally counted each vertical column before proceeding to the next to reach the total she had drawn.
The maths: Counting
The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted.
Alice ( (5 years, 3 months) had made her own dinner register, while her teacher took the register with the whole class. Alice used a cross to represent the children who said they were having a packed lunch, and circles for those having school dinners. The item she drew in the centre is her packed lunch box. On this occasions Alice chose to count the symbols.
The Taxonomy: Representing quantities that ARE counted
The maths: Quantity; data handling