Children\'s Mathematics

Figure 8.4 List of medicines

When environments are mathematical, mathematics happens

Hall (1987, p. 19) states that:

children should never need to ask if they can engage in purposeful literacy acts. If a

classroom provides an environment where the state of literacy is high, where there

are powerful demonstrations of literacy and where children freely engage in literacy,

then children will take every opportunity to use their knowledge and abilities to act

in a literate way.

A purposeful literacy act:

If we substitute the word ‘literacy’ with ‘mathematics’, then we can see that Hall’s

statement can also be true for mathematics. The mathematical environment is

Kate, 4:9, and Naomi, 4:11, had decided to paint a picture in the art area.When

they had finished Kate decided she would give her painting to her aunt. She went

to the writing area and wrote a letter saying to her aunt: ‘this is for you. Love

from Kate’.

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