This article focuses on junk materials and how they invite and encourage children to play and construct without the need to name, define or label the constructions. The article also deals with how practitioners' expectations can disturb this creative and transitory process. The article is based on one aspect of my study entitled "When matter…

This article forms part of a larger study aimed at supporting teachers in understanding their practice and improving it. Students' tests, an examination of students' mathematical work, teachers' lessons plans and reports of the lessons' instructions are the base data for this article. The analysis indicated that the teachers were unable to…