Invitations and Provocations

These are words that we have thrown around in the past but after a recent workshop that a few of our staff attended, they have become a reality within the center.

Invitations and Provocations are a method of teaching within the Reggio Emilia philiosophy that both provide children with experiences for exploration and as interests are observed, new materials are offered to provoke deeper thought and more meaningful learning opportunities.

Our first invitation was a simple loose parts play experience using a variety of materials and empty frames.

Based on the observations of the children during the first invitation, over the next few days we provided materials such as clay, beads and mirrors to explore a few more ideas and try to gain more insight into the children's interests. 

For our Kindergarten children, this also allowed us the opportunity to assess some of their strengths as well as areas where they needed assistance developmentally such as literacy and language development, balance, emotional awareness and attending skills. 

Our final invitation really helped us determine how we would move forward with our emergent curriculum planning. We provided the chidren with materials to stack and build with which they created "Paris". 

Stay tuned for our follow up to all of these amazing Invitations with our Provocations Blog coming later this week.

The Vet's in town!

We've had a few sick animals lately. Thankfully we had a Vet in the centre! The Kinders have been interested in animals and dramatic play for a couple of weeks now. They started with making their own Vet clinic and using imaginary items. To enhance their learning and imagination we created "Cairns Veterinary Clinic". 


The Vet Clinic included animals and the types of things you'd find at a clinic such as stethoscope, x-rays, otoscope, scale, treats, cotton balls, medication, etc. The children are learning new vocabulary and literacy skills

We even had a receptionist who signed everyone in and answered the phone calls.

Although, the Clinic was set up for the Kinders all the children enjoyed playing!

The vet made sure to fill out a form about the pet and if the pet needed further care.

The children are practicing their writing and reading skills.

Remember to keep reading our blog for more on our dramatic play area!

What have we been up to!

Here is a look at what all the children have been up to!
The Before School group has been busy with; 
Cutting letters/ shapes out of cardboard and wrapping it in yarn.

 The finished products were appealing and soft!

Painting using straws, the children had to blow the paint around with the straw to create abstract art.

The kinders have been having fun with saving the animals! 

The animals were stuck in the basket with "lasers" above them and the children had to use the tongs to save the animals before the time ran out.

Writing secret messages, we practiced writing secret messages to each other using white crayons and paint. 

The main interests for one of the Kinders group is animals and art, so why not combine them. The children picked a picture of a animal and then had to complete the picture. 

We took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and went sliding down using cardboard boxes, the children had a blast! We have also been busy building

We have also been busy building. The morning Kinders have still been showing an interest in transportation. They created a town using blocks and paper for roads to drive around. 

They have also been racing cars, testing speed and distance. 

The After School peer planning is going very well! The children are planning activities that everyone is enjoying! 

Making salt dough necklaces, and shapes. 

We got to see everyone rocking dance moves with our dance off. 

And lastly, we tested the children's taste buds by blindfolding them and asking them to guess what they were eating. 

We have been keeping ourselves entertained and can't wait to see what other activities will be done. 

Busy children are happy children!

We have been keeping busy before and after school. Here is the recap on the last week! 

Some of our Before-School activities included;  

Painting using only q-tips.The children were creative in how they used the q-tips, some children made dots and some used it as it were a paint brush.

We made our own mazes using straws, pipe cleaners and q-tips. The children were able to make many different versions of mazes!

We love to see confidence in our children, and to help build our confidence even more we made our positive jellyfish, it is a jellyfish and the children had to write a few things they think represent them.

The children were often drawing Emojis, so we put out a few things and they made emojis with coffee filters and markers. 

After- School program is planned by our Peer group which consists of grade fives and six planning for the other children. Some activites we did included;

Fastest cup, the children used a straw to blow the cup across the table first.  

Find the prize! We really had to use our memory for this game, we hid "prizes" under 10 out of 50 cups and the children had to pick a cup, lift it and if there was no prize the child had to put the cup back and go sit down. The other children had to remember which cup had already been lifted. It took a bit of time but we found all the prizes! 

To end the week off, we made the Laser Mats. The children used yarn as lasers and taped them to the mats. All the children got a chance to try to get through the lasers! We even got to see Mr. Jonathan attempt the laser course. 

We definitely had a blast last week, and we can't wait to see what this week holds!