Lida sits on the floor together with her three friends and a teacher. She holds a little plastic bowl in her hand and gaze at a bowl with water, which is placed on the floor in the middle of the group. Her friends fill the bowl with different kind of toys. They are laughing and shouting while they throw toys in in the bowl whith wide gestures. When the bowl on the floor is full of toys they start to pick up the toys again. Meanwhile, Linda leans forward and fills the little plastic bowl she holds in her hand with water. She leans back and waits while her friends fill the bowl on the floor with toys again. When the bowl is full with toys she leans forward and pours back the water from the little plastic bowl in the bowl on the floor. The same procedure continues over and over again.

This  paper starts with a concrete science learning situation in a Swedish pre-school. The purpose is to discuss how early years science teaching and learning can be understood as a process of meaning making. From a social semiotic perspective focus of interest is on signs and sign making in early years science teaching and learning. The emphasis is on young children and their teacher as sign-makers and their situatde use of modal resources. The discussion is based on authentic examples from an on-going Swedish study. The main object is to describe and analyze the signs young children make in concrete learning situations in science. How do four chlidlren and their teacher use different semiotic resources and how do they invent new ways to combine the resources in science learning as a multimodal meaning making process? The study is based on micro level analysis of the multiplicity of modes of communication that are active in the learning situations. The analysis focuses on a number of modes including: gesture, speech, gaze and movement as well as the teacher and children´s use of artifacts.