Movement of Materials – May 26, 2017
Our previous blog talked about our daily provocation set ups and how the children explore them, this week we continue the love for our thought provoking provocations but highlight how we as educators plan a provocation one way and the children in Shale always find a way to move materials from around the room into the provocation and expand it even more.
As every parent or family member comes into the room, they can notice how materials are all over the room. Blocks are in the kitchen corner, loose parts are in our fish tank and pots and pans are in the sand bin. We set the room up for all the materials to move freely and easily in the room but at times it is a battle to keep certain items out of the water table. This past week we had two provocations set up, Emily had them planned as two separate provocations but Audrey and Zoe wanted to combine them. They would take the cotton balls and feathers from soft and light sensory bin and add it to the miniature ocean world in the other bin. Zoe quickly realized that the cotton ball would soak up the water and become heavy. Audrey placed feather in the water and noticed they would float then slowly sink to the bottom after becoming soaked. The movement between the two provocations bins changed into a one big provocation of cause and effect; what happens when you put cotton balls, pom-poms and feather into water? All the educators learned from our Shale friends that pompoms can hold water and we liked to squeeze them into our mouths to get a drink! Our loose parts shelf is a very active area, washers and door handles are moved around the room frequently during the day. Theo enjoys moving loose parts from the shelf and dropping them into our fish tank, we find a variety of items in there throughout the day.
We encourage movement of materials around the room to expand and enhance play. At times it hard to imagine an item having multiple functions and it takes a child moving something from one area to another to highlight how we need to always think outside the box, nothing truly has one purpose.
Have a great weekend!
Emily, Sarah, Young, Cassi
