The content of the curriculum is still presented in the same linear way as previous curriculum documents and, as a result, many teachers continue to teach it in the same disjointed way and, inevitably, many children they learn in the same disjointed way (Hurst, 2015). One aim of the new Australian mathematics curriculum was to make the curriculum “deep” rather than “broad” (National Curriculum Board, 2009). One way teachers can address this situation effectively is to think at a “macro level” in terms of “big number ideas.” For example, teaching proportion, percentage and ratio, or decimals and fractions with associated language and done with 'object actions', engages students in activities with numerical quantities that are interesting, meaningful and develops links to multiplicative thinking. Language is as much an abstraction as mathematical ideas are; therefore students must do the activity at the same time as "talking" about what is happening for it to be