Measuring Rice in Early-Childhood Education Activities: A Bridge Across Discrete and Continuous Magnitudes

In this paper we report on some qualitative results of an explorative study about how a sample of Italian children of ages 5 and 6 evaluate and manages quantities of rice, a substance that can be treated as continuous or discrete. In particular, we are interested in how young children manage the task of comparing quantities, judging whether there is “as much [rice] as” in different piles. Acknowledging the crucial role of artifacts both at a psychological and social level, we also offered the children different artifacts to face this task. Taking the Semiotic Mediation perspective, we analyze the strategies and the situated signs developed by the children, identifying those that could later be used by a teacher as pivot signs when constructing the mathematical meanings associated with the process of measurement.