What is a Provocation?
A provocation consists of materials that
Educators set out to PROVOKE children’s thinking and lead to the creation of an
experience. A well-crafted provocation
inspires play that is self-directed by the children. It provides children with hands-on
exploration to practice, test, construct and deconstruct their ideas and
theories.
Why do Provocations?
They PROVOKE thoughts, discussions,
questions, interests, creativity and ideas.
They allow children to develop skills of creativity, problem-solving and
reflecting.
What’s the difference
between a Provocation and center play?
The difference is the intention behind
the materials the educator chooses to present that matter. This is the one reason why the PRESTATION of
the Provocation is so important.
What does a Provocation
look like?
It is set up separately from other
activities and with much thought given to presentation and organization to
PROVOKE interest. The child’s work space
is defined using boundaries such as frames or placemats. A literacy prompt is located with the
open-ended materials. The Educators use
open-ended questions to encourage creativity and higher thinking, and will provide
more interaction rather than direction to child’s play.
What materials do I use
create a Provocation?
Keep it simple! Use ordinary, everyday, open-ended materials
– don’t over think it! Focus on what you want the children to learn from the
experience and what tools they need to accomplish that learning, but keep the
Provocation open-ended to provide means for expression from the child. Materials should be age-appropriate.
