Figure 9.3 Carl’s delivery note and parking ticketsMathematical mark-making through play
Carl ‘read’ what he had written on the delivery note (Figure 9.3) saying, ‘if it breaks,
fix it’. Daniel read ‘three blocks’ and Sam said nothing when he made his marks. The
construction continued for a few minutes until the roof was complete. Next Carl
decided to build a ‘car park’ for the house which he soon developed into a public car
park, repair garage and car sales.
Using small wooden blocks Carl began to arrange cars in rows on the floor and put
two long blocks at right angles to form a boundary for the parking. He talked about
where the cars should park, commenting ‘You have to have a ticket or you get done!’
I noticed that there were no mark-making materials in the block play area so I put
paper and pens near Carl. I was sensitive to the fact that this was his play and I did
not expect him to use them unless he decided to do so. After adding a few more cars
Carl started to make some marks, then fetched scissors and cut out tiny pieces of
paper for ‘parking tickets’. He ‘read’ each ticket as he placed them in turn on top of
a car ‘40p, 40p, 40p, 50p, 70p, 80p, 90p’ (see Figure 9.3).
Having paper and pens to hand triggered many more ideas. The ideas flowed from
Carl and none had been suggested by me. Next Carl wrote a sign – which he referred
to as a ‘label’ – saying ‘no parking’. Then he made a ‘£50’ sign on a car for sale and
a ‘closed’ sign to go on the brick which he’d used as a gate to close the car park.
The children talked about ‘broken’ cars and said they would ‘fix ’em’: Carl referred
to several cars as ‘G-reg’. After a while he looked across to me and asked if I wanted
to buy a car, offering one he said was £40.Teacher No thanks – that’s too much money.
Car This one’s £50.
Teacher Oh dear – that’s too expensive – I haven’t got enough.168 Children’s Mathematics8657part 2.qxd 04/07/2006 17:28 Page 168