Learning provocations are used in the classroom to "provoke" thought and motivate thinking or investigation. There is some debate regarding the difference between a learning invitation and a learning provocation. Many people use these terms interchangeably. A little research found that a
You might have heard the terms provocation and invitation with regards to inquiry learning. An invitation is something that encourages students to explore a concept. A provocation is something that provokes action and stimulates thinking.
Learning provocations are used in the classroom to "provoke" thought and motivate thinking or investigation. There is some debate regarding the difference between a learning invitation and a learning provocation. Many people use these terms interchangeably. A little research found that a
You are currently reading our archived blog. While these older posts may not reflect our current vision and direction, we encourage you to visit our new website at wunderled.com to explore our latest, updated content. There, you'll find a wealth of valuable articles, resources, and insights that align with our current focus and over 60+ Free […]
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I first began teaching early childhood education about three decades ago, there were many discussions about the language that we use to name what we do. I rememb…
You might have heard the terms provocation and invitation with regards to inquiry learning. An invitation is something that encourages students to explore a concept. A provocation is something that provokes action and stimulates thinking.
Be inspired to set up invitations to play and learn using simple materials from nature with this collection of photos and ideas from early years educators!
Learning Invitation Versus Learning Provocation There is a difference between a learning invitation and a learning provocation. Many people use these terms interchangeably which is totally acceptable but if you would like to learn about the theoretical differences, head over to this blog post : Wh
Get your free copy of our latest resource: Provocations: A Start Up Guide
I brought a branch of cherry blossoms in yesterday for a provocation. We used markers and tempera paint (pink mixed with white) and painted with cotton balls to duplicate the branch. I also brough…
You might have heard the terms provocation and invitation with regards to inquiry learning. An invitation is something that encourages students to explore a concept. A provocation is something that provokes action and stimulates thinking.
Provocations are coming from Reggio Emilia Approach. They are brilliant opportunities for children to explore, learn, get new ideas, be creative and develop versatile skills.
At the beginning of every year my teaching partner and I incorporate lots of name recognition, construction, and writing provocations to engage children. Here are some of our favourites so far this…
Be inspired to set up invitations to play and learn using simple materials from nature with this collection of photos and ideas from early years educators!
View our new spatial reasoning blog post: 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations Part 2 here. As our kindergarten team continues to learn more about children and their development in spatial thi…
The Outdoor Classroom Provocations & Beautiful Materials Take a moment and picture this … Jake and Ian rush down the sidewalk racing yellow trucks. Elise relaxingly swings in the shady […]
Today I want to share some inspiring invitations and provocations with loose parts that demonstrate the academic value of loose parts.
“Put simply, provocations provoke! They provoke thoughts, discussions, questions, interests, creativity and ideas. They can also expand on a thought, project, idea and interest.” By far…
After a nice Spring Break, we gathered to continue our Music Inquiry. The kids continued to explore creating sounds in different ways. We loved how they would bring us random objects from both inside and outside to show us how hey could create sounds, such as rubbing a stick through a handful of grass or striking a stick against a log and other surfaces, noticing that different surfaces created different sounds. Some also used their artistic talents to create instruments using paper! They loved how they could feel the vibrations when striking the chimes, reinforcing the fact that sound is caused by vibrations. The children choose a way to make sound to become an expert in. Each group organized information by creating a circle chart to show different instruments that create sound in the way they were exploring. I forgot to take photos of the finished charts. I will try to add them to this post on Monday. Each expert group chose what instrument their group would make. The shaking experts decided to create rain sticks to show that you can create sounds by shaking. The striking experts wanted to create cymbals to show that you can make sound by striking. The blowing experts created harmonicas to show that you can make sounds by blowing. They had to measure he straws to create different lengths to show different pitches. The strumming/plucking experts are still working on creating guitars to show that you can strum and pluck to create sounds. They used different sized rubber bands to show the different pitches. We are in need of paper towel tubes for them to finish! If any of you parents have any, please send them in. The rubbing experts will be creating their instruments on Monday. They will glue sandpaper to blocks (and of coarse paint them so they are beautiful) to show that you can make sound by rubbing. They will have different grades of sandpaper to show different pitches. As a whole class, we created kazoos! They loved how they could feel the vibrations when when they used them! We practiced creating different pitches with them. It took some strong finger muscles to work the rubber bands and thread ribbon through them to decorate them. We also created maracas by taping 2 spoons around a plastic egg filled with rice, beans, or sand. Each created a different pitch. We had kids model a rythym with them and we all echoed their rhythms. Now that they have investigated, the next steps are for each group to present to the rest of the class about their way of creating sound. We then need to take the information they have learned through exploring and investigating and work on answering our driving question: How can we create an area for kids at our school to explore sound? That journey will be shown in next weeks post. Meanwhile, here are a couple other things going on in our class! In Writer's Workshop, we are discovering that we are all amazing poets! They are being exposed to all kinds of poetry and working on their own poetry treasuries. When we are done, you parents will be invited to a poetry tea so we can share our amazing poems with you! I found these beautiful flowers and couldn't resist sharing their beauty with the class. They are displayed for them to take a closer look and paint. One of our friends brought in a nest with egg shells in it! We set it out for the kids to explore and built this provacation around it to invite further exploration for those who are interested. Mrs. Garrabrant brought us grocery bags to decorate for Kroger for earth day. They will use these bags for their customers groceries! I found some girls trying to plant some dead trimmings from our butterfly bush in our garden plot. I then knew it was time to dig out our gardening tools! The kids were very excited! They weeded, took out the sticks and turned the soil for us. I noticed that we need more soil so I will be looking for resources that could help us get some! They are very interested in planting something, but we haven't decided what yet. Stay tuned to see what will happen next!
View our new spatial reasoning blog post: 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations Part 2 here. As our kindergarten team continues to learn more about children and their development in spatial thi…
Storytelling with Loose Parts is where magic happens! Today, I want to share a few provocations with Loose Parts for the story: Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Our team continues to learn about supporting student’s spatial sense and this post includes 10 new spatial reasoning invitations with printables. Our previous post on spatial reasoning and th…
Discover effective invitations to play for each of the learning domains and ignite imagination and creativity in early childhood.
Handwriting has never been easy to teach to kindergartners, but it is in the Common Core Standards that they learn how to print letters correctly. Each year I have tried through the traditional ways of working on fine motor skills the first half and then formal handwriting sheets the second half of the year. It never worked so this year I tried something new... An inquiry about lines! I asked the kids what kind of lines they knew of. At first they drew straight lines, but then started to expand the types of lines they made! We read some books and watched some videos on YouTube that showed us different lines and also gave them names. I put out provocations for them to explore lines in many different ways and see what they noticed and what connections they made. I put out invitations for them to use lines to make letters, shapes, designs, pictures and numbers: They explored! They are doing activities to build strong finger muscles to help with handwriting and explore lines at the same time! Our clay is quite hard and they have to work it to soften it up. Plus, manipulating the pipe cleaners helps work those fine motor skills! Through this simple inquiry, the kids are much more aware of the different types of lines and how to make them. They are recognizing them in letters, shapes, numbers and pictures. So far, I am seeing an improvement compared to previous years in their names as they try to form the letters the correct way. More are pulling down vertical lines rather than pulling up when making letters but for some this is a hard habit to break! We will keep working on it in developmentally appropriate ways and we will see as the year goes on if this knowledge of lines will help them with the common core standard of writing letters correctly! Here are some other things the kids have been doing in our room during this inquiry! Dots! We celebrated International Dot Day and celebrated creativity! Ken Robinson said that creativity is as important as literacy and I cannot stress enough how true that is! Employers want creative and critical thinkers so these skills need to be emphasized! Here are some pictures of some invitations to be creative and our final display of creativity! In Literacy, we have been focusing on letters and letter sounds. They have been using their names and the names of their friends to help them to recognize letters and their sounds. The invitations at the beginning of the year focused mostly on exploring letters and names. Working lavender into this play-dough also made this a great sensory experience as they used it to explore letters and try to spell their name and friends names. They have been working on the concepts of print as they learn letters and sounds through letter books. They have been practicing starting in the right place, pointing to the words and going in the right direction when they read. When they partner read, one is the reader, the other is the helper so they have to listen and watch closely, then they switch roles. In math we have been exploring numbers counting objects and matching them to the number. We also have been exploring measurement. In math we are also exploring shapes and their properties. In science, they have been working on looking closer, wondering and documenting what they notice. I set out invitations for them to explore and practice these skills. It has been a very full first month! It is amazing how far the kids have come! Stay tuned to find out what the kids are creating for our math area!
You are currently reading our archived blog. While these older posts may not reflect our current vision and direction, we encourage you to visit our new website at wunderled.com to explore our latest, updated content. There, you'll find a wealth of valuable articles, resources, and insights that align with our current focus and over 60+ Free […]
Be inspired to set up invitations to play and learn using simple materials from nature with this collection of photos and ideas from early years educators!
