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Back to School Provocation Centers


Are you looking for fun STEM challenges to do at the beginning of the school year? Here are some play based centers that kindergarteners or preschoolers will love.

What are Provocation Centers?

Provocation centers is Reggio inspired learning through play. It provokes learning, questioning, creativity, conversations and interest based learning. It is a more guided play than free choice play time as the student engage in challenges at each center.

How do I implement Provocation Centers in my classroom?

It is a mix of S.T.E.A.M. centers and provocation centers related to the content that we are currently learning about. These centers are a great for building stamina and teaching students that mistakes are proof that we are trying.

I introduce provocation centers by reading:



The Most Magnificent Thing is an adorable story about a girl who keeps trying to build a contraption and has to keep trying and trying until it is perfect. We also read It's Okay to Make Mistakes. We talked about the importance of continuing to try and mistakes are proof that you are trying. (Click on the pictures of the books to buy the books on Amazon.)

My Back to School Provocation Centers:

Light Boxes:

Students will make letters using different shapes on the light boxes. They love this center! This is a great center to work on letters at the beginning of the year.

The pieces are from Learning Resources.



Build landmarks around the world for me to visit:

I love teaching global awareness through play. I created posters of landmarks around the world. It is available in my Global Awareness Center Packet. I created "Little Miss LaRocques" which is just a photo of my head on a clipart body (I used Educlips Kindergarten packet). This not only gives students inspirations of what to build with the blocks, but it also teaches them about the world around them.