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A girl walks her fingers, and then toy animals, up stairs constructed with blocks. She explores different ways to make her repeated actions correspond to the graduated steps. How is this math-play? The girl does not count, but she does create interesting variations on correspondence, a fundamental component of quantifying sets of objects. Tapping once on every step in sequence expresses her sense of a one to one correspondence (N+1 rule). Tapping every other step with alternating fingers or toys can be formalized as N+2 alternating with N+2. Tapping multiple times with a four-legged animal suggests she appreciates the 4 to 1 correspondence with an N+1 rule. She makes approximately 4 taps for each step without skipping steps. Experimenting with action patterns facilitates children’s understanding of more quantitative concepts, including dividing by two or multiplying by four.

Keywords: Fours, Children-Teacher, Number, Sequence, Rules

Length of stand alone master video clip: 27 seconds