Children Noticing Their Own and Others' Mathematics in Play

Much is known about preschool children's mathematics learning and the role of play in that learning. Many early childhood educators are quite adept at observing and documenting the mathematics learning of the children in their settings. These teachers "notice" the children's mathematics but they are not the only ones to "notice". In this paper, children's noticing of their own and others' mathematics is investigated through a pilot study of a small number of preschool and first-year-of-school children. Content analysis of observations and children's discussions with researchers provides the basis for the early development of an analytical framework for children's "noticing" mathematics.