Car Caravan: I see, I think, I wonder...

One of my teaching partners kindly allowed me to post the learning story she wrote for our Car Caravan math task. We had some very interesting results!

Car Caravan: I see, I think, I wonder...

A small group including our student was gathered at a tabletop to show the picture. It was first thing in the morning which could explain some reluctance in sharing or talking. The other child selected was also a timid child.

The intention was to present the problem as 'I see...I think....I wonder'

When asked what do you see? Responses included:

'wood'

'It's oval' 'there is a little oval'

'Colours' 'red, orange,yellow,green, blue'

'It looks like a swimming pool' ‘It’s a portal’

'Cars'

'I see a piece of the floor'' it's a table'

'I see pink cars'

'I see circles'

It was a challenge to get the children ( all 4 year olds) to comment more on what they see. A prompt was given to further the observation and to clarify what they were observing.

'How many circles do you see?'

This prompt was followed by the child counting by pointing to the colours in the design.

When asked, 'what are you wondering about when you look at this picture?'. There was no response. After a while, a child asked, 'who made it?'

The photo was presented to the class with the same procedure:

'I see that it is on the floor'

'It's a circle'

'I see colours cars, a little bit of yellow, orange...'

'A dirty colourfully carpet on the floor'

' a really big circle'

' a very big circle with cars on it'

' it is an oval'

One child commented:

'One row red, one row orange, one row yellow, one row green, one row blue, one row shiny, one row red...'

What are you wondering? 'How many cars in a row?'

The next day, the question of “how can we find out how many cars are in a row?” resulted in a blank look and “I don’t know”  from the child.

Manipulatives were set out on a table with the picture made visible to see what the children will do.  A child (just turned 6 years old) duplicated the shape with similar coloured blocks.  Our target child (just turned 5 year old) used pencil crayons and duplicated the colour pattern in a rainbow shape.  Another child (just turned 5 years old) started the colour pattern with popsicle sticks in a square shape (using sticks) but gave up and messed up the sticks, however, she named the colours seen in the picture and collected the coloured sticks and put them into a pile in front of herself.  She then started again to replicate the colours, but this time in a inverted ‘V’ pattern.

The children noticed the colours of the picture foremost.  As an educator, support and extension could have come by asking the question “which colour do you see the most of?” then “how can we figure that out?” Leaving the question open, left the children just observing and guessing what the picture of cars was representing (swimming pool, carpet, portal). These children needed more support in addressing the mathematical thinking this picture was trying to provoke.