All of these children were involved in some form of math activity. The other children were reading from books about the weather, water and plumbing, still others were writing or painting. Four were engaged in observational drawing of an umbrella. In the course of these other examples of project work there might also have been children who were counting or discussing time, quantity or measurement. Some activities they were engaged in involved investigation and others involved representation.
Representation requires the children to use different kinds of descriptive languages.
The many languages of learning include talk, drawing, painting, writing, math symbols, graphic organizers, dramatic play, work with clay or construction materials, and so on. Let us take the example of the close observation of the umbrella in the case described above. In their drawing some of the children shared what they had noticed through close observation, for instance, the point with a metal tip sticking up at the end of the dome shape of the fabric, the ribs curving down to the points at the edge of the dome, the stick emerging from the underside of the dome and finishing in a curve with a loop of cord attached through a hole in the handle. Other children wrote a detailed description describing what they could see from several different angles. The written description included information which was not featured in the drawing.