- Standard abstract symbols
 | Super Mario Elizabeth made a “Super Mario” game, in imitation of the real game her older brother had. Drawing “buttons” on it, which, in her imagination could be pressed. She added numerals to each, some of which were reversed: “3”, “5”, “1”, “2”, “0”, “2”, “2”, “0” and “0”.
Note: Many young children reverse letters and numerals, and it has been found to relate to normal development and maturity in children up to the age of about seven years.
quantities: Numerals as labels
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Taxonomy - written number and quantities: Representing quantities that are counted Number, age
| Tommy and the elephant Tommy (4 years, 11 months) decided to copy the numerals from a hundred square on the door of the classroom. He was very focused as he carefully wrote numbers to ‘60’. he then drew a tiny hamster by the numeral ‘1’ and drew himself above the numeral '4'. Finally he drew a (tiny) elephant by the number ‘60’. The previous day Tommy had been with his class for a visit to the zoo. When he showed his teacher what he had done, he explained that hamsters do not live very long, and that he was four years old. He then drew on some new knowledge, ”elephants live a long time” [i.e., as much as 60 years], information he had gleaned from the zoo-keeper's talk. Tommy had made a significant step in relating his knowledge about ages and the approximate life-expectancy of the two animals he’d drawn, to the numbers he had written, combining his knowledge with his recent experience at the zoo.
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Marcus’s ‘spy gadget’ Marcus (4 years, 6 months) was watching Leola nearby as she took a piece of yellow card, and began snipping cuts snipping cuts around its perimeter. Clearly intrigued by this, Marcus copied what she had done. Then, taking a pen he wrote a string of letters and numerals on his card, reading "sk’ ‘714bp10" and, lifting it to his face, explained it was “a spy gadget", explaining, sk' is ‘to keep the password safe”, then “To switch it on you have to say '714bp10’'’. Asked if there was a way to switch his his 'spy gadget' off and he replied excitedly “Yeah! You have to read it backwards!” promptly reading,“10 pb417”. Whereas Leola had turned what she had done into a card with a message to her mum,Marcus’s imagination took him into the world of contemporary film heroes and computer games where he invested his gadget with technological powers and drew on his considerable knowledge of passwords and controls. Marcus’s spy gadget reveals its multimodality, combining materials and symbols (cut and folded card; a stamped clover-leaf and his written string of letters and numerals), weaving these into inter-related whole so that it contains his meanings - also enabling also enabling him to wear it (by covering his face for secrecy). |
Numerals as labels
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 | James the Red Engine Matthew (3 years, 9 months), drew one of his favourite storybook engines, “James the Red Engine” and wrote a numeral ‘5’ on it, which was the number of the engine in the story. Matthew was very interested in numbers, not only on trains but also in bus numbers and the destination of buses.
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“How old are you?” Baylee (5 years, 0 months) wrote the numbers 1 - 10. Having added some ticks, she decided to put a dot beneath each (as if to make it easier to see where the tick went). Beginning with the ticks beneath '5' and '7' she then went around the class with her clipboard, asking each child how old they were. When she showed her teacher, she also had ticks beneath ‘7’ and ‘2’ and explained her brother was ‘7’ and her friend’s sister was ‘2’. Baylee asked her teacher how old she was (35), and thinking hard about the number, she wrote it down at the top of her paper and gave it a tick. Baylee clearly thought about layout and ordered the data as she collected it, making her findings easier to read and discuss (or analyse) afterwards.
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and quantities: Representing quantities that are counted
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| Big numbers! Francine (4 years, 5 months) was very excited that she could write a million, and, as she wrote each line of numerals, she attempted to read read the number aloud. Several other children joined her, keen to write equally large numbers, and Francine reminded them that they needed “six zeros." Pointing to her first line of figures she announced that it was “the biggest." Whilst this does not imply that Francine has a full understanding of the number system into the millions, there Is good reason to support young children’s interest and curiosity in numbers that extend beyond 10 or 100, and how they are written. Meanwhile, Hayden (4 years, 8 months) appeared to be writing a range of numerals that he knew, occasionally pointing to a number and explaining that it was his brother’s age, or the age of his friend.
Explorations with signs and symbols
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Magnetic numerals
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Exploring numbers Max was exploring the basket of magnetic numerals and placed a line of magnetic numerals on the whiteboard. Daisy, noticing what Max had done came to join him, giving him other number nines that she had found around the room and in the basket. She then placed a zero onto the board. Felicity, pausing whilst drawing at a nearby table, looked over and commented: "My mummy does not think zero is a number". Alfie explained, "Zero is in number ten." The nursery teacher picked out a one and a zero from the basket of magnetic numerals and Alfie continued, "Put another zero, and that is one hundred." Martin came over and said "My favourite number is number five. When I get bigger...’" Daisy continued, "My favourite number is one hundred". Alfie, obviously thinking about all these numbers and how you make them, said "if you put a five and a zero that’s fifteen." |
thinking, fifteen looks like this" and she placed a magnetic one and five on the board. Alfie thought about it and then self-correcting replied, "I mean fifty. And if you put a 6 in it, it will be sixty." At this point Daisy was becoming increasingly interested in what number you could make if you put certain numerals together. She tested this out by sticking a group of numbers on the board. She asked, "What number is this?" The teacher answered "sixty-three thousand and one," Daisy then proceeded to move the zeroes from the sixty-three thousand and one over to the other side of the board, asking each time "What number does this make?" Her teacher told her what the number was, each time she moved the numerals, explaining that this was "631" then "63", then "number 3" and then "0."
Numerals as labels
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