An important concept in early childhood education is "provocation". In the Reggio Emilia Approach they say that educators should "provoke occasions of discovery" for children.
This basically means that rather than tell the children what they should know, educators can ask questions or set up equipment or set up a room in a way that "moves" or "inspires" the children to go explore and find the answers for themselves.
One day at HEY, I brought in a box with shells from the beach in it. The children had been playing with water a lot as it was summer. They were also talking about the beach a lot too.
The shells were a provocation. The closed box was a provocation. The children were very curious about what was inside. This kept them engaged.
The second provocation was this question: "what should we do with the box and shells?"
The children started filling the box with sand and decided to start burying the shells like treasure. They played a game where they took turns hiding and finding the shells. Later the children started to bring water to the sandpit and we started making shapes and objects with the sand. I asked the children "what else do you think we can make?" and one child asked for a sea snake. We worked on our fine motor skills as we pushed and pinched the sand to form a snake. Kate also made a cat with Olivia and decorated it with shells.
We played for a long period of time and the play went in all different directions full of learning just from one simple provocation - a box with shells in it.
TASK: Think about some of the things the children have been interested in at kinder. What could you bring into kinder from one of your nature walks and how could you present it as a provocation for the children? Discuss this with your coach and draw a plan in your notebook like this:
What is the object?
How will you present it?
What might it be used for?
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