"Let's roll the dice": exploring amounts, counting, transcoding and the investigation of invariance and variance

In what appears to be quite a teacher-centred activity, six children and their educator investigate dice, bricks, and counting. With the educator following the children’s leads, the activity moves into discussions about size, length, equivalence, and equality. While explaining the structure of early childhood education in Germany, the first commentary also raises the potential for mathematics learning through a holistic view of children and their learning using the concepts of Bildung (education), Betreuung (care), and Erziehung (upbringing). While warning of dangers around the schoolification of kindergartens, the third commentary emphasises that it is important to encourage the learning of mathematics in kindergartens by giving everyone involved - children and adults - the chance to discover and internalise basic mathematical experiences with fun and games. The third commentary is written from the perspective of Australian early childhood education and stresses the links between the vignette and both Australian practice and curriculum framework.