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Robbie and Alyssa are sitting in their caregiver’s lap when Robbie introduces the birthday theme. The caregiver supports the children’s theme by inviting them to sing the birthday song. Observe what strategies Alyssa uses in order to synchronize her song with Robbie's. Notice what the caregiver does to extend the birthday topic. Carefully observe when she suggests that the child’s symbol is not sufficient by saying, “Oh, you’ve got to blow harder than that if you want to blow the candle out." When Alyssa quickly shifts from the birthday theme to reciting her phone number, notice how the caregiver negotiates the children’s introduction of two different classes of numbers: counting sequences and phone numbers. Their exchange invites us to think about ways to help young children better understand class differences (ie., last names, phone numbers).

Keywords: Twos, Teaching, Children-Teacher, Symbolization, Number, Classification

Length of stand alone master video clip: 3 minutes 16 seconds