In this series, Fran Mosley first looks at the use with young children of number tracks - lines of successively numbered squares. Later she moves on to true number lines, where it is the lines which are numbered.

Restricting yourself to lines numbered from 0 to 100 can mean missing out on much of their potential, as they work equally well with any range of numbers - big, small, negative, fractions, decimals. So, Fran Mosley offers activities with number lines of different ranges, with partially numbered lines, and with the empty number line.

It is sometimes hard to realise that five years ago most of us had never heard of the empty number line, on which children record only those numbers which are significant to their thinking.

There are more than 50 tested activities in key areas of numbers and calculation. Most come as lesson plans, with information about objectives, materials, extensions and simplifications. Fran Mosley has been using and writing about number lines for many years, and this is an authoritative collection for those who work with children of about key stage 1 age. I do hope there is a KS2 collection on the way.

AP