Showing posts with label Provocations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Provocations. Show all posts

Friday 11 July 2014

Pipi Whanau (Infant and Toddler classroom)


The Pipi Whanau is the infant and toddler classroom at 4 Kids . We are both inspired by Reggio Emilia and RIE in this room which I hope you will see through the photographs. I have only recently moved in to this room and alongside my team we have spent the last few months organising and rearranging our classroom. In a few weeks it seemed our class had evolved from being dominantly a toddler room to an infant and toddler room as a few of the older children moved through to the preschool room and two very young infants started. We really needed to rethink the space to accommodate pretty much all ages and stages from 3 months - 2.5 years. At the moment we have very young infants, crawlers and toddlers. It can be a challenge to create an environment that can provoke and inspire all these different children but we have given it a good go and it will continue to evolve!



We developed this area for our infants, the aim was to create a sensory space. The hanging materials are low enough that the infants can reach and grasp them. They all make different sounds and reflect the light in various ways. The tactile canvases are interesting for children as they learn to crawl and sit. The mirrors are low so infants can see themselves play during tummy time. Our toddlers have been just as interested in this area and use it in very different ways to the infants. They love to walk through the hanging materials and touch the canvases. 


Being RIE inspired, we believe children should have freedom to move so we avoid placing children into things they are unable to get out of themselves. The Pipi Whanau does not have any cots, highchairs or swings. We use these baskets as an alternative to cots. Each child has a frame above their basket with a photo of them and their name. Our children have ownership over their space which we believe creates a sense of security and familiarity for the children during rest and sleep times.




We believe it is important to provide children with places to retreat from the hustle and bustle of the centre especially since some children are with us for very long hours. The teepee has become a bit of a retreat for the toddlers and often we will find them in here just pondering quietly to themselves. We change it around but at the moment we have ribbons hanging and loosely placed on the floor and fairy lights pinned to the roof. 


Noah's Ark provocation. This is a familiar story for our children and perhaps one that may inspire their play in the construction area...



Tinfoil is a great medium to use with infants and toddlers. It is easy to manipulate and tear and it has some qualities that are very interesting to children such as the way it reflects and captures light. Our infants have been fascinated by the sound this material makes when they scrunch it, pat it and kick it with their feet.



This provocation is very open ended. The children enjoyed sorting the objects in to different containers and investigating the tactile nature of the materials. One of the older toddlers used these materials to make his own ephemeral art. 



As we all know, young children are very sensory learners. We want our classroom to reflect the sensory nature of children. These are sensory bags. We refresh them every so often with new and different natural materials. A variety of herbs, lemon, garlic and cinnamon are in these ones. The children are able to engage their senses especially their sense of smell. 


A play dough provocation with lemon and orange rind as well as a variety of asian herbs. 



The toddlers have been very interested in the dolls since two infants started in our room. They have been closely observing the teachers caring for the infants and we have noticed them mirroring what they have seen. One toddler was patting the dolls back and I realised she was trying to burp her doll. This provocation was set up in response to this interest with photos of infants being cared for in different ways such as sleeping, being fed a bottle, being winded, played with and cuddled. 

Thanks for reading :)


Saturday 17 May 2014

A tour of the outdoor environment

Recently at 4 kids we have had a few tour groups come through our centre. This has been an awesome opportunity for us as teachers to reflect on our practice and really think about how our environment is set up for the children. We have really enjoyed sharing our knowledge of Reggio Emilia and how their philosophy can be interpreted in a kiwi context. I think we got just as much out of this experience as the teachers who came through our centre!

My colleague Skye and I set up the outdoor environment for one of the tour groups who came through...


Carpentry Table

Dramatic play in the sand pit

A provocation in the vegetabe garden. Books, magnifying glasses and torches to investigate with.

It's always nice to read in the garden

An opportunity for children to develop theories about different materials and their properties

Our children love to build rivers! 

Ephemeral art in the outdoors. Something for the children to discover and add to.
I hope you enjoyed this! Indoor provocations to come...

Friday 12 April 2013

Sand trays!


This provocation seems to have generated a lot of attention over the last few days and lots of you have been asking about it. So heres the deal...

At the end of last year we sent all our children home with a paper bag. The idea being that they would collect treasures from their summer holiday to share with everyone when we started back. The treasures would act as a starting point for conversations about the holidays. The children came back with all sorts of things. Some children brought back photographs and tickets, but natural resources were the main attraction with children bringing shells, feathers and glass from the beach as well as sticks and leaves they had found on walks. Many of the children contributed their special treasures to the centre and an interest in ephemeral art began to show. 






We extended on this interest by presenting the children with many different provocations. The children began to create art in the sandpit using sticks and leaves. We noticed they were drawing patterns with sticks in the sand. I presented this provocation to a group of interested children as an extension on this.   Here's how they responded...


A swimming pool

This is a volcano!

Hope this answered a few of your questions!

  


Tuesday 9 April 2013

Lets talk about provocations...


Lets talk about provocations... What is a provocation? The options really are endless! Provocations are happening wether you come from a Reggio Emilia inspired centre or not. They are the questions we ask, the materials we put out, the music we put on...even we as teachers act as a provocation sometimes...

Heres how Journey in Early Childhood defines it...

Deliberate and thoughtful decisions made by the teacher to extend the ideas of children. Teachers provide materials, media and general direction as needed but the children take the ideas where they want. 
Journey into Early Childhood 

I want to emphasise something here... 

The children take the ideas where they want...

See, I was asked recently by a volunteer..."Do your provocations always work?". I was taken back by this...what did she mean by 'work'? Then she said, "I haven’t seen the children drawing crosses here"...



What she didn’t hear was the conversation happening at the drawing table...

Jayden: Hey Kalen, thats an X aye
Kalen: Yeah, I don’t have an X, I have a K
Jayden: Oh I have a J and an A and a Y and a D and a E and a N

The two boys then began searching for letters around the room, trying to find them on the walls, in the artwork and documentation.

The boys did not see a cross...they saw an X. They did not feel compelled to draw the cross...instead it became a point of discussion. 

I’ve talked about the childs agenda before but I think it is important to mention it in this case as well. We need to consider this when setting up our environment or when we ask a question to children. Do not pre-empty an experience and decide what will happen. If you come with an agenda you may tend to restrict children. Remember children express themselves through a hundred languages...take a minute to observe how they speak. 

Check out a few of our provocations...





The children take the ideas where they want...



Wednesday 3 April 2013

Easter walk

The childcare centre where I work is connected to the local church and we implement christian values into our program. This year we celebrated Easter by hosting a walk through exhibition about Easter alongside the after school program, playgroup and infant and toddler room. We felt creating art was a good way for the children to communicate their feelings and understanding as we went through the easter story this month. The children had a real sense of ownership over the walk through and were proud to show their families and share with them what they had learned. Have a look through our walk through...

Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane...
Jesus felt very sad because he knew that some of his friends were telling bad people to come and take him away and hurt him. He was praying to his father God.





Judas sells Jesus...
Jesus had many friends, but his friend called Judas sold Jesus to the bad people. They gave him some silver coins and took Jesus away because they did not like him helping the people.

Video of school children's drama about Judas and Jesus

The market place...
Another one of Jesus friends, called Peter, told people that he didn't know Jesus. He was telling lies. Before Jesus died, he told Peter that he would tell lies before the rooster crowed three times.




The Jail...
The ruler (prime minister) tells Jesus that he will be killed and that no one wants to be his friend. Jesus is tied up and put in jail. Lots of his friends were very sad and scared that their friend was going to die.

The children created this jail in our carpentry area.

Jesus carries his cross...
The bad people who didn't like Jesus, took his clothes and hit him, then they told him to carry a big wooden cross through the streets. It was very heavy and Jesus was hurt. A man called Simon used his helping hands to carry the cross for him up the hill.

Visitors were invited to share how they could use their hands to help others just as the children from playgroup had done.

Jesus is crucified...
When Jesus was on earth, in our world, people were hung on a cross with nails in their hands and feet', this is called crucifixion. Jesus had not done anything wrong but he died for all the wrong and bad things we have done. All Jesus' friends were very sad.


A cross created from clay, nails, wood and wire by a group of preschool aged children.

Visitors to the exhibition were invited to create a cross from salt dough which they could either take home or contribute to a piece of collaborative art for the centre.

Jesus is placed in a tomb...
Jesus' friends took his body and washed it and then wrapped it in special material and carried it into a tomb which is like a cave. Then all the very big men pushed a huge rock across the door way into the tomb so no one could get it. There were soldiers outside the tomb so no one could get it. They stood there for three days...

A tomb created by the preschool children.

Jesus is alive!
On the third day, Jesus' friend Mary went to the tomb but the big rock was pushed away and Jesus was not in there. An angel had pushed the rock away and he told Mary that Jesus was alive. Jesus had told her that this would happen, so she ran all the way to his friend's house and told them that Jesus was alive! All Jesus' friends were very happy to see Jesus.

Written by the preschool children.

This painting is a celebration of which all were invited to participate in!

Thank you to all involved!









Saturday 23 March 2013

The child's agenda

The children have been exploring the concept of sinking and floating lately using the water trough. K came up with the theory that all wooden objects floated which inspired my set up the next day. I set up the trough with as many wooden materials I could find and added plastic animals as a provocation.

J was the first to discover the provocation in the water trough and I observed him as he began to engage in dramatic play. This was exactly what I expected would happen! J was expressive as he chased the animals around the trough with the plastic alligator, snapping at them and yelling "I'm coming to eat you!". J's older sister T noticed my interest in what he was doing and went to investigate. After observing him for a little while she asked him "can I play with you J?". J was not phased by this and invited her into his play by handing her a dinosaur. T began to chase all the farm animals around the trough with her dinosaur, just like J was doing with the alligator, but it wasn't long before she began to take control. "We need to take everything out of the water now J..." she said and I gulped. I had spent quite a while setting up this provocation which only J and T had explored. However, I stood back and observed. What is T's agenda? I wondered. 


T began to splash around with her hands and then picked up an animal. "Its a swimming pool!" she proclaimed as she threw a dinosaur in to the water. J was unsure about this and stood frozen as if he wasn't sure what T wanted him to do. T sensed this and decided to bring the sticks back in to the trough. J went back to balancing the animals on the sticks and chasing them with his alligator but T now had a different agenda and I observed her closely as she began to balance the sticks on top of each other... "How can I make a bridge?" she asked J. J did not say anything, preferring to continue his play with the animals and T began to build her bridge. T struggled to make the bridge connect from one side of the trough to the other but quickly came up with ideas solutions which can be seen in the photographs...

T must have been working on her bridge for a good half hour before she excitedly told me "It has worked!". I was amazed at her perseverance and the fact that not once did she get frustrated even though the bridge repeatedly came crashing down. Instead she sought solutions and made repairs. 


As teachers, sometimes we need to throw our agenda out the window, because more often than not, the child's agenda is so much better! The environment really has acted as the third teacher here and my role was simply to observe and document this awesome learning experience for J and T.