Kearnu (four years one month) is in his second year at Pen Green nursery and currently attends full time. He is fascinated with lines, connections and grids.
Home context
Kearnu lives with his mum, Charraine, dad, Neil, and brother Shaye (one year one month). At home he enjoys using his train set and appears interested in lines, connections and grids. Charraine reports, 'He will sort out the track how he wants it, but then doesn't play with it.' Kearnu stops playing with the train set when he is satisfied with the 'pattern' he has made with the linking track.
He shows a similar interest with his dominoes. He is interested in connecting the dominoes together by matching the numbers and transforming the single dominoes into grid-like configurations.
He also enjoys looking at road maps at home. Charraine says he understands which lines represent roads and which represent railway tracks.
Kearnu travels to nursery each morning on his bike with his dad.
Nursery context
Throughout his time at nursery Kearnu has been fascinated by lines and trajectories. He has spent time learning to ride a two-wheeler bike and has built with the blocks and guttering, making horizontal and vertical lines.
He has also spent many hours with the train set, as at home.
At lunch Kearnu sits next to Angela, head of nursery, and for some time he has ensured that their chairs are placed exactly side by side, connected.
Occasionally their chairs are of different types and connecting them is not possible, so Kearnu always changes his chair for one that he can connect.
Over time Kearnu has become interested in making 'grids' (lines connected together to form grid-like patterns). We can see this through his graphic representations, as well as aspects of his symbolic play.
Video observation
Kearnu was filmed throughout his construction of roads, made with planks (see photos taken from video).
Interestingly, his graphic representation drawing is similar in form to his representation of a road produced by using planks of wood. He was meticulous in placing the planks at right angles to each other and then extending two particular 'roads'.
There is evidence that Kearnu had a plan, a 'silent narrative' running in his head. At one point in the film he looks up and down, pointing, as though he is thinking, and throughout the play he instructs Annette, a practitioner. He is able to convey to Annette what is in his mind and tells her where he wants his road to go and where to place particular planks.
During this episode Kearnu realises that one of his 'roads' is not straight. He says, 'I'm not going this way, I'm going straight down this way', pointing in the direction he wants his road to go. Kearnu then re-aligns his road. He is very particular about ensuring that there are no gaps between the planks. Once he has re-aligned one road, his crossroads no longer exist. He immediately moves the plank to re-create his crossroads.
At this point Kearnu walks away satisfied.
What is he learning?
An initial analysis of the video material could have indicated that Kearnu was working at quite an early sensorimotor level. He appeared simply to be placing planks next to each other.
However, once we involve Charraine, hear about what Kearnu is interested in at home and observe his explorations more closely, we come to a different conclusion. Kearnu is working at both a symbolic level, as the planks are symbols for roads, and at a 'thought' level, as he is able to articulate to Annette what he is trying to create. He is then able to instruct her in how to help him.
Charraine reminds us about Kearnu's interest in road maps, and the fact that he travels to nursery each day on his bike, gaining daily first-hand experience of roads (lines) paths (lines), junctions (grids and cross-sections).
While creating his road with planks Kearnu is also estimating distance and gaining understanding about right angles through the creation of crossroads and grids. He is developing his understanding of linear measurement through making long lines (roads) from planks, each having a beginning and end point (like a ruler). Each additional plank extends the length of the road by 'adding on'.
These explorations, combined with continuing first-hand experiences, are the foundations of mathematical concepts. When Kearnu matches his dominoes at home he is making a co-ordination between number and linear measurement.
Supporting his learning
Kearnu needs extensive provision. Many planks are required for his long roads. At home when he is playing with his dominoes, Charraine says, he gets fed up when they are all used up. At nursery we need to ensure that there are many blocks and planks of different sizes and weights and several sets of dominoes.
We need to ensure that children have access to double provision (materials inside as well as outside). It is our responsibility to ensure that there is a vast choice of provision for children. They need to be able to access this provision when and how they want to. Finally, we need to observe children closely in order to support and extend their schematic explorations.
Written by Colette Tait, researcher at Pen Green Centre for Under-Fives and Families in Corby, Northants
Further reading
* Pen Green Centre, 'Take cover', Nursery World, 19 February 2004
* Pen Green Centre, 'Move it', Nursery World, 15 April 2004
* Pen Green Centre, 'Get it straight', Nursery World, 17 June 2004
* Pen Green Centre, 'Get set', Nursery World, 19 August 2004
* Pen Green Centre, 'At home', Nursery World, 21 October 2004