Exploring Depth

19 October 2017

Today the sandpit was busy with children who were digging holes and filling them with water.
Initially there were two holes being dug by two individual children, who then accepted
assistance from others to make them bigger and deeper. There was some discussion
happening in which children were using the numeracy processes of noticing and comparing as
they used language such as bigger, smaller, deeper and more.

Child 1, Child 2 and Child 3 are digging a hole in the sandpit and Child 3 says “they have to be deep to
the bottom of the sea”.

Child 1: “Child 3’s working with me”.

Child 3: “I’m gonna get a little shovel”.

Child 1 looks at his hole, and over at Child 5 and Child 6’s hole and says “mine’s getting deeper”.

Child 3 starts to dig again with a smaller scoop and says “much easier. It’s fine to scoop when someone
digs it far. It makes it easier”.

Educator wonders aloud about how much water would be needed to fill the hole right to the top.

Child 3: “twenty, sixty, seven, eight”.

Child 1: “lots”.

Child 5 starts to shovel sand into his and Child 6’s hole and Child 6 becomes upset, so educator suggests
Child 6 starts digging a new hole.

Child 3: “that will take for forty five ages”.

Child 1: “look for thousand hours how deep it is”.

Child 2 pours water into their hole using a watering can and Child 3 does the same.

Child 7 looks at the hole and says “it’s getting to the top”.

Educator: “how many more buckets of water do you need?”

Child 7: “six”.

Child 1: “lots more”.

Educator notices one hole is deeper and the other is wider and asks the children which hole is bigger.

Child 3 looks at their hole and then at Child 6’s new hole and says “that’s the biggest hole. His is the
deepest. We digged the deepest hole”.

Child 2 points at his hole and says “that’s the small (points to the narrower hole) and that’s the big (points
to the shallow, wide hole)”.

Child 3: “Now this one’s the fullest (points to smaller hole) ‘cos someone fulled it up. Good job boys.
They’re putting a lot of water to make it explode”.

Early Years Learning Framework Outcomes and Numeracy Indicators:

EYLF Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.
EYLF Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.
EYLF Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
Numeracy Indicator: I measure and compare my world.