This is a story of children ages 3-5 years and their teachers thinking mathematically. It is a project of measurement that blossomed within our classroom. I believe the images and reflections within this story demonstrate a strong image of children as people who are: curious about the world around them, creative, resourceful, and eager to be challenged. I hope it also sheds a light on the thinking and wondering that I did together with the children and with my co-teacher, Caroline Wolfe. By telling this story, I hope to make visible not only the children’s processes, but also the role we as teachers can play within those processes. As the children explore measurement, invent tools of size, scale, and number, and create methods of recording data, what might support look like from adults who are engaged fully in their role as “professional marveller,” a term coined by Loris Malaguzzi which has particular relevance to our story. It is our hope that by publishing this story, readers will experience a bit of these marvels for themselves, and in so doing, recognize a new potential for the capacity of our youngest mathematicians.
-Lauren Adams , Teacher Researcher, Opal School (June 2013 Portland, Oregon)
