© Copyright M. Worthington & E. Carruthers 2012 |
 |
Shereen subtracts (nursery)
Shereen had been
playing cafés and, seeing a
children’s whiteboard near, chose to
represent customers’ orders on it.
Her teacher was nearby and David was
also watching.
She began by drawing
the figures on the right, explaining
‘this is me. This is my Daddy at
the café.’ She drew a flower and
a heart above them, followed by five
cakes on the left. |
Shereen then asked a
friend ‘You like some cake?’
and following the reply ‘yes’
She rubbed out a cake to show it had
been bought. Shereen repeated her
question to her teacher and when
Emma also replied ‘yes’,
Shereen rubbed out another cake
remarking ‘Three left’. [It
was unclear to what the ‘14’ at the
top referred].
Soon after this,
David drew himself and Shereen in a
café,
using the same strategy to denote
subtraction,
and
clearly benefitting
from Shereen’s representations.
Tomasello (2005) refers to this
shared learning as joint attention,
David’s behaviour as
intention-reading. |
Taxonomy
- this example
Tomasello, M. (2005).
Constructing a language: A
usage-based theory of language
acquisition. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press. |
|
Isaac and the
safe*
Isaac’s
teacher Emma bought a small safe
into the nursery to support Isaac’s
interest and for other the children
to investigate. A few days later she
observed Isaac and Jayden’s pretend
play, rich in mathematics…
After
several days of complex play with
their ‘safe’, Isaac decided to write
down the number of blocks being
taken from the block area, saying
‘one, two, three, gone! Gotta write
it down and put it in the safe.’
In
addition to his curving lines and
scribble-marks Isaac had written a
cross and a circle. |
 |
In
supportive settings young children
experience an explosion of interest
in graphical symbols (Worthington
and van Oers, 2015). Machón, (2013)
highlights how between the ages of
three to four years of age the
children had begun to use specific
graphical symbols, something that
Isaac had begun to explore here.
Machón, A. (2013) Children’s
Drawings: The Genesis and Nature of
Graphic Representation. Madrid:
Fibulas Publishers.
Worthington, M. and van Oers, B.
(2015 / 2017) Children’s social
literacies: Meaning making and the
emergence of graphical signs and
texts in pretence. Journal of
Early Childhood Literacy, 17(2)
* For
the full observation of this play
narrative see: Worthington, M. 2015.
Mathematics and the ecology of
pretend play. In J. Moyles, Editor.
The Excellence of Play. 4th
Edition. Maidenhead: Open University
Press. |
Taxonomy
- this example
|
|
CONTEXT:
Pretend Play
Nursery:
Isaac - 4 years 3 Months
|
 |
The
marks Isaac used for his ‘building
plan’ (above) and the letter he
wrote (on the right) appeared
similar. For his map Isaac selected
a large sheet of blue plastic that
he could readily roll, (as he had
seen his father – a builder - do),
whereas he wrote his letter on a
standard sheet of A4 paper.
These
two examples highlight the decisions
Isaac made in choosing the materials
he would use for the two different
genres. Materiality is an
important aspect of multimodality
(see for instance, Kress, 1997).
Kress G
(1997) Before Writing: Rethinking
the Paths to Literacy. London:
Routledge. |
 |
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in social pretend
play and imagination: multimodal
meaning making.
|
|
CONTEXT:
Pretend play - shops
Nursery:
Shereen - 4 years 4 Months
|
Engaged
with using the till and money (real
coins), Shereen invited her teacher
Emma to her shop. Passing items she
said ’Keep, Keep' as she gave each
item to Emma. Shereen then began
writing receipts, saying ‘Thank you,
bye, bye, Come again. Here’s your
receipt.’
Indicating a switch in her role, as
shopper, and Emma as shopkeeper.
Shereen then wrote a list using
letters she knew including ‘H’ and
‘T’, saying as she wrote ‘Cheese
burger, apples, bananas.’ |
 |
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
|
|
CONTEXT:
Spontaneous pretend play - shops
Nursery:
Shereen and Verast, 3-4 years
|
 |
 |
Shereen
told Verast ‘Shop is closed’ as she
drew a single wavy line on her
notepad. Turning the page she drew
two, wavy lines similar to the
first, then picked up a phone and
spoke into it ‘Shop is closed’.
Verast
sat down opposite Shereen again and
opening the draw of the till,
Shereen gave Verast a raffle ticket,
and pretended to give her some
money, saying, ‘Shop is open'.
Shereen
then gave these pages from her
notebook to Verast, describing the
one on the left (with one wavy line)
as 'Shop open' and the other as
'Shop closed' (with two wavy lines)
- as she declared the shop -
‘closed’ and ‘open’.
Young
children appear to have a
fascination with contexts in which
symbols showing a change of state
such as Shereen’s. Other
examples including
Daniel's
Sign 'Shop Closed' and
Nursery - a
spontaneous ball game also
show children using alternative or
contrasting symbols to indicate
different (but related) meanings,
indicating that conditions have
altered.
|
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
|
|
CONTEXT:
pretend play outside
Tiyanni's House: Tiyanni 3 years
9 months
|
 |
 |
 |
Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
Figure 3 |
Tiyanni
and her friends picked up numbers
(on cards), chatting about house
numbers. A short while later they
went into the gazebo in the garden:
‘It’s our house’ Tiyanni announced.
Their teacher asked if it had a
number outside, and Tiyanni replied
‘The number needs to go inside’ and
wrote her numbers on the wall in
chalk.
Pointing
to the large, almost enclosed circle
(on the right of figure 1) she
explained, ‘That’s the number 8, and
the other number’s ‘9’ (her friend
Macey had earlier fished out cards
with a ‘9’ and a ‘5’ to make her
house number). Orna referred to her
numbers as ‘89’ and ‘5’ (figure 2)
and then to some of her symbols as a
written note (figure 3), reading it
as ‘Don’t forget to bring fruit to
nursery.’ She had seen teachers
write this message on the whiteboard
on several occasions.
The
children used a range of numeral-
and writing-like signs to
communicate their house numbers and
a written message. Young children
often use zigzag or wavy lines to
represent writing (perhaps imitating
adults’ handwriting). They often use
crosses to convey diverse meanings
in a range of communicative contexts
such as drawing, maps, writing and
mathematics. Tiyanni knows that
different signs are used to
represent different meanings.
|
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
-
Exploring symbols
-
Early written numerals
-
Numerals as labels
|
|
CONTEXT:
pretend play outside
Ayaan's
Television
|
 |
Accompanied by Zalluyah, Ayaan told
her ‘My baby need TV.’
Picking
up a small piece of red paper, Ayaan
made her signature ‘A’ along with
intersecting lines. Returning inside
the gazebo she hunted for tape and
fixed her drawing to the gazebo
wall.
Ayaan
carefully placed the doll in a
chair, Taking a strip of raffle
tickets too, facing towards the ‘TV’
and pressing the raffle ticket to
turn on the TV.
Ayaan
appeared to have used the ‘A’ of her
name, and other grid-like marks to
signify a television. In choosing to
use a book of raffle tickets as a
remote control, Ayaan made
connections between the raffle
ticket's numerals and those on a
remote control.
|
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
|
|
CONTEXT:
pretend play
David’s
shopping list: nursery 3 years
|
David’s
curving, zigzagging marks are
writing-like scribbles, beginning
‘around the age of three years when
children notice and imitate adults’
linear arrangements of writing that
are similar to their own scribbles’
(Worthington and van Oers 2015;
Machón 2013).
David
also added some vertical marks
(lower left) and a circle, both
separate graphic symbols ‘midpoint
between graphic symbols and writing
signs’ (Machón 2013: 322).
David
read his shopping list as ‘‘I’m
going shopping to get sausages,
beans and peas’.
Machón,
A. 2013. Children’s Drawings: the
genesis and nature of graphic
representation. Madrid: Fibulas
Publishers.
Worthington, M. and van Oers, B.
Children’s social literacy practices
and the emergence of graphic symbols
in pretence and imagination.
Forthcoming.
|
 |
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
|
|
CONTEXT:
spontaneous pretend play
Shereen
takes orders: nursery 4.6 years
Shereen
collected some and dishes and
stuffed inside a nearby cardboard
box (using it as an oven). Telling
her friends to sit down, she picking
up a notepad and asked, ‘You like
some food? I got soup, rice, chips?’
One of
her friends said she’d like some
rice and Shereen wrote a series of
small spirals along the lines on the
paper, adding ‘You like some drink?’
Her friend said that she would and
Shereen again made similar spiral
marks on her notepad. When the other
child shook her head (not wanting to
play), Shereen asked ‘You not very
hungry?’ and turning to a new page
wrote a series of ‘x x x x x’ across
the page. She then took some bowls
and handed one to the child saying
‘Your rice’.
|
 |
Continuing her café play outside
with friends, Shereen took more
orders for food. She then used
vertical lines as shorthand for
numbers of items on a shopping list,
counting each line up to 20.
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
Written number and quantities:
|
CONTEXT: spontaneous pretend play
Elizabeth, 4.0 years: ‘Who wants an
ice cream?’
Elizabeth ran around the garden with
two other children. One of them
arrived at the gazebo and began to
write ‘prices’ on a notebook.
Elizabeth followed suit and drew a
symbol. ‘That’s pounds’ (‘£’) she
explained, then ‘Who wants ice
cream?’ A child came towards her ‘My
first customer’ she said.
|
 |
Elizabeth has used a personal symbol
that imitates something of the
appearance of the symbol for ‘£’
on its side. From 3 – 4 + years
children are becoming increasingly
encultured into the symbolic written
languages of writing and
mathematics, making links with their
home cultural knowledge and using
signs and symbols in meaningful
social contexts.
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
Written number and quantities:
Gallery 7: The emergence of signs
and texts in pretend play
|
CONTEXT: spontaneous pretend play
Bookings for the
campsite (3-4 years)
Young
children draw on their interests and
cultural mathematical knowledge in
their pretend play. Isaac often goes
camping with his family, triggering
this play episode.
Isaac
and David were talking down the
phone to each other. Isaac decided
to use a diary as a ‘booking book’
for a campsite, explaining that two
people were staying, and making two
marks in the diary. Isaac then used
the phone to take more bookings,
telling David ‘one hundred million
people are staying!
|
 |
 |
David said ‘I want to
stay for two nights’. Isaac said, ’No. I’ll put you
down for two million nights, but don’t worry - it’s
only £1.00 a night’. Isaac then wrote it down in his
‘booking’ book - this time making many marks and
David also took a diary and made his own symbols
(circles and vertical lines). Their teacher Emma
commented:
Isaac had the
knowledge and personal experience about campsites
and instigated the play, and the others went with
his idea. This is so different from a themed play
area since the children in the campsite play totally
owned it and set it up and collected the things they
wanted and needed. I got the diaries at our
scrap-store and that has just sparked so many ideas
for the children’s play.
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
Written number and quantities:
|
CONTEXT: spontaneous pretend play
Ice-cream shops (3-4 years)
This
example reveals the embedded nature
of children’s mathematics. Ayaan was
just beginning to explore
mathematics in her play.
|
Shopping
with her mum Ayaan knows a lot about
paying for goods, and sees her dad
count the money he takes each day
from working as a taxi driver.
At home
she loves helping to prepare
ingredients and helps care for her
siblings. |
 |
For two weeks Ayaan had
been playing in the gazebo outside in the nursery
garden, offering pretend ice cream through the
window to children. Today when a child replied
‘Yes’, Ayaan answered ‘No left’, adding ‘I make
more'. Then collecting stones and pretending to make
ice cream, Ayaan asked Tariq if he wanted any. She
passed him an imaginary ice cream, then pressed
buttons on the till saying, ‘It’s 50 minutes.’ Soon
after Ayaan drew dashes in a notebook without
comment.
The next time Ayaan
played ice cream shops she asked ’50 minutes
please’. When a child offered ‘£1.00’ Ayaan replied
‘That’s £50 please.’
Comment:
Ayaan’s confidence in speaking English had grown,
and she often chose to initiate role-play with her
peers. Playing ice-cream shops became a familiar
context in which she explored mathematical ideas and
developed friendships.
Taxonomy:
Making meaning in
social pretend play and imagination.
|
CONTEXT: spontaneous pretend play
Car park entry
- Isaac and Oliver 3-4 years
This
pretend play episode arose from
Isaac’s interest and very detailed
home cultural knowledge about
swiping a plastic card to enter a
car park, business cards related to
his dad’s work, security gadgets and
cameras. Knowing his interest, his
teacher Emma brought several small
safes into the nursery for the
children to investigate.
|
 |
 |
Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
Drawing rapid marks on a sticker, Isaac announced,
‘you need to have a business card to get in here.
I’m fixing the gate so it has electric. You have to
have a business card to swipe in. I don’t need one -
I use my hands.’ Isaac gave a piece of paper to
Oliver, ‘Here’s your business card.’ Isaac wrote
more marks on a label, ‘this says ‘swipe here with
your special code card' (figure 1).
As Oliver swiped his
card Isaac noticed another child enter without one:
he stuck a smaller sticker on the fence (to the
right of the first) with scribble-marks on (figure
1), explaining, ‘this is the bell if you don’t have
a sticker, someone can let you in. It says, ‘press
here’. Someone will come and open the gate.’ He
added a third sticker in the centre of the gate,
‘This is for lorries and deliveries - it opens
automatically - it’s a camera’.
Lacking Isaac’s specific
knowledge of car parks Oliver quietly listened and
observed before deciding to participate. He made
independent decisions to use dots followed by
several ticks, explaining, ‘these are ticks. When
there are 3 ticks you can go, when there are 2 you
can’t go that way. I’ve made 2 ticks - that means
you are not allowed. People allowed in that way’
(figure 2).
Using letters from his
own and family members’ names, Oliver wrote his name
on his sign ‘O, L, I’ to personalize and perhaps
confirm his power, then wrote ‘E’ for Ellie (his
sister) and ‘D’ for Daddy, before attached them to
the fence (figure 2). Oliver was able to fully
appreciate the power of signs when another boy
followed his instruction (and sign) by walking where
he was directed.
Comment:
The children sometimes used scribble-marks as
semantic ‘placeholders’ to denote specific meanings
in their play, whereas in other child-initiated
contexts in the nursery and at home the children
used letters, drawings or other graphical signs.
This suggests that such rapidly made marks allow the
course of play to proceed uninterrupted. Matthews
argues that ‘Far from being chaotic actions and
random ‘scribblings’ children’s use and organisation
of visual media exhibits semantic and structural
characteristics from the beginning’ (1998: 90).
Taxonomy:
Making and communicating meanings in
social pretend play - graphicacy
(drawing, maps and writing)
Written number and quantities:
Early explorations with marks: attaching
mathematical meanings |
CONTEXT: Spontaneous Pretend Play
Entry
Registers: Isaac, David and Jayden -
3-4 years
|
Isaac,
David and Jayden (3-4 year olds) are
by the door into the nursery, having
decided to check people coming in
and out. They have collected
clipboards, paper, pens and a
calendar, and use a range of marks
and crosses.
Isaac uses vertical marks for people
who come in and out, and an 'x'
- explaining, ‘That means you work
here.’
After a period of time during which
no one enters of leaves, Isaac
grumbles, ‘No one’s come in or
out recently!’ |

Crosses are one of the first
abstract symbols children choose to
use and they use them in a wide
range of contexts to signify many
different meanings. |
 |

For
more registers, see also:
Gallery 4: ‘Making Dinner Registers’
and Chloe’s Dinner Register. |
Making
meanings in pretence, imagination and
role-play including drawing, maps and
writing.
Written number and quantities -
Representing quantities that are not
counted; exploring symbols.
|
|
|