This article describes how an innocuous question from a primary schooler taught me to pay attention to the dynamic meaning making activities of children—particularly, those of my young daughter. Through this lens, I examine how the verb-based world of children might compel us to think differently about the largely nominalized project of schooling and, more specifically, about the craft of teaching mathematics.
This article examines the mathematical activity of five-year-old Liam to explore the difference between the mathematics games designed for children and the children's games that emerge through playful activity. We propose that this distinction is a salient one for teachers observing mathematical play for evidence of mathematical sense making.
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