Children\'s Mathematics

for example, after three, four was chosen because some of the children were four.

Toby, 3:9, chose number eight because that was his brother’s age. Toby loved to feel

that number and showed it to his mother. Amy, 4:6, initiated a circus game using

the number line.

I decided that because the children were so interested in this number line I would

invite them to make their own number lines. I provided long strips of paper and

pens beside the number line. The children then could freely use these if they wanted.

Several children took the opportunity to do their own number line.

Jessie, 4:3, is centring on her ‘J’. This is the most important letter to her at the

moment and she uses it for number symbols as well as writing symbols (see Figure

9.2, top). In her teaching of reading, Ashton-Warner reasons that the letters in a

child’s name are personal to them (Ashton-Warner, 1965). Jessie’s dots may be rep-

resentations of other numerals and ‘line’ may be a literal translation of line because

she often heard us refer to the number ‘line’.

Donna, 3:6, talked about the numbers as she did them. She moved from left to

right as she wrote. She has one number very firmly at the beginning of her line (see

Figure 9.2, centre).

Daniel, 4:8, has mixed letters and numerals. Again, like Jessie, he is using letter

symbols for numbers (see Figure 9.2, bottom). In her observations of children

writing, Clay (1975) also noted that this two way use of symbols happened. Daniel

has used four as his first number on his line because it is his age number and it

means something to him.

Figure 9.2 Number Lines

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