Figure 6.4a Jay’s eight Figure 6.4b Michelle’s number huntMichelle’s number hunt alerts us to the difficulty of differentiating between stan-
dard written letters, numerals and abstract symbols such as ‘+’ and ‘–’. This difficulty
may persist for some older children and is something one of us experienced when
attempting to learn some basic Tamil in both spoken and written forms.
All forms of children’s early written numerals have clear links to their earlyVisiting another class of 6-year-olds, I invited the children to hunt for numbers in
their classroom. Before the children began we discussed the places where
numbers are sometimes found and some of the specific reasons that they were
used. The children made a number of suggestions including numbers on a
radiator thermostat to control the temperature and on a clock. Michelle, 6.4b,
went off with her clipboard and was very involved in what she wrote. When the
children gathered together to discuss their findings, it was apparent that Michelle
was unclear about the difference between written numbers and letters. She had
copied the numerals on the clock (in the circle on the right), but had otherwise
recorded letters and words from environmental print in the room (Figure 6.4b).Jay, 3:8, (Figure 6.4a) was drawing and appeared to be interested in horizontal and
vertical grids. As I watched, she added some letters though did not explain their
meaning. Slowly she drew a curved shape which she joined. She paused, admiring
what she’d done, and said in a surprised voice ‘eight!’, then turned to me adding
‘my brother’s eight!’ She again drew an eight, apparently enjoying the flowing
movement and the resulting numeral. In beginning her final figure eight she took
the pen in a different direction and abandoned her marks.98 Children’s Mathematics8657part 1b.qxd 04/07/2006 18:17 Page 98