Children\'s Mathematics

Figure 6.6 Tommy and the elephant

These young children either attend to the link between their early marks and

meaning as a quantity in a general sense, or use the paper to arrange items and

numerals in a random manner. Large numbers are not, however, undifferentiated by

young children, since they clearly have the sense that there is a difference between

larger numbers and smaller numbers. This was noted in Gelman and Tucker’s (1975)

study when they looked at the range of numerical estimates children gave for sets.

They found out that even 3-year-olds showed a differentiated use of numbers from

four into the twenties.

Tommy, 4:10, planned to copy numbers from a hundred square on the door of the

classroom (Figure 6.6). He was very involved and carefully wrote numbers to 60. He

then drew a hamster by the numeral ‘1’ and drew himself above the numeral ‘4’.

Finally he drew an elephant next to the number ‘60’.The previous day Tommy had

been with his class for a visit to the zoo.When he showed me what he had done he

explained that hamsters do not live very long and that he was 4 years old. He then

drew on some new knowledge – ‘elephants live a long time’ (as much as 60 years).

Tommy had made a significant step in labelling, relating his knowledge about ages

and the life expectancy of two animals to the numbers he had written. He had

combined his knowledge with his recent experience at the zoo and devised his

own system of labelling.

Making sense of children’s mathematical graphics 101

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