”Matematisk meningsskaping i barns lek - En casestudie”.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how children can create mathematical meaning in their games and activities, and to examine how this creation of meaning is expressed. Mathematical meaning can be created by many different expressions such as verbally, bodily and physically, and is expressed, among other things through counting, measuring, systematisation and categorisation. The study examines mathematics in the natural situations of children, such as play situations where children play with building blocks, are drawing, talking or playing games.

The study concludes that children in the study use mathematical reasoning because it adds meaning to their game. For instance, the children establish structure through classification and mirror symmetry in their game. The children's mathematical reasoning is not only communicated through speech, but also via gestures and actions. For example, the children divide toys between them so they both have the same type and number of toys. The study concludes that before it is meaningful for children to express themselves through words, it must be necessary for them to verbalise something. The mathematical elements often appear where it is natural for the children in their game.

This study is based on a case consisting of video footage of three to four minutes' duration. The footage shows two five-year-old boys of a non-Norwegian ethnic background playing in a sandpit in a kindergarten. The observation is analysed on the basis of a semiotic approach.

Flottorp, V. (2010). ”Matematisk meningsskaping i barns lek - En casestudie”. Nordisk Barnehageforskning, 3(3), 95-104.