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.

Click on the pictures above to check out The Letter Construction Kit

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.

Click on the picture above to check out my Global Awareness Centers

Ways Students Around The World Get To School

We are currently learning about how students around the world get to school. I created a center that students have to build different transportations with Legos (using the vocabulary that we have learned). I printed out and laminated trolls from Creative Clips School Trolls packet.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Challenge Center

This is by the far the most popular center! The students are challenged to build a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree with blocks, green popsicle sticks and magnet letters. I challenge them to see how many letters can they fit and how tall can they make it. And of course I put the book with the center.

Play Dough Letters

The students will try to build the letters using PlayDough. This is a great center for students to practice using their fine motor skills while learning the letters. I bought these mats from The Printable Princess. Click picture to find these mats on Teachers Pay Teachers.