Creating Invitations for Learning

by Deb Curtis

The birds living in a tree just outside the window of our their thinking doesn’t seem to get much of a lively or sus-
school generated quite a stir among the three- and five-year- tained response. But when I carefully arrange props and rep-
old children in the program where I am a child care teacher. resentational materials in the environment with a particular
There was much excitement and delight as the children focus in mind, the children are delighted to discover and
observed the birds build a nest and care for their new babies. play with them, eagerly share their ideas and theories, and
To take advantage and extend on this wonder-filled event, I seek more information. Because of this I have been steadily
decided to gather some props and materials for our indoor collecting, organizing, arranging, and offering props and
environment and invite the children to more personally representational materials that captivate children’s interest.
explore and represent what they were seeing through the
window. Designing Invitations
At the local craft store I found some beautiful bird families
I call collections of interesting and carefully combined
made from feathers, a set of tiny plastic eggs, and a few bird
materials “Invitations” and I use them in a number of ways:
nests commercially made from twigs and feathers. I also
collected feathers, dried leaves, grass, and moss and a variety
■ Invitations to respond to and enhance an emerging
of small, flat baskets. I carefully arranged these items on the
interest, as with the Bird Invitation described above.
top of a low shelf in the classroom and displayed books
about birds and nests nearby. The children eagerly accepted
this invitation, imitating the drama they had been observing When I observe an interest among the group I intentionally
out the window. They were especially drawn to acting out organize props and materials for children to revisit and
how the bird parents cared for their babies. The children also represent their ideas. As I observe their conversations and
designed elaborate nests with the natural materials, sharing activities, I get new information for what else to offer to
their theories about what kinds of nests the birds would like. extend the activities and learning possibilities.
Over the next month the children continued to play with the
birds and nests, poured over the books about them, and par- ■ Invitations to help children learn new skills and multiple
ticipated in many other activities and conversations sparked uses for tools and materials that are a part of the daily
by this enchanting event in nature and the opportunity to environment.
pursue it in active, meaningful ways.
I arrange materials and make displays throughout the
In my work as a preschool teacher I have found that offering regular areas of the room, often including documentation
information about things that children have limited experi- with diagrams, instructions, or photos of children’s
ences with, or posing a series of questions to try to encourage previous work in this area. For example, I arrange blocks
and other block props in specific ways that suggest new
Deb Curtis has been a preschool and childcare teacher at the Burlington Little School
possibilities for building and design and include photos of
in Burlington, Washington for the past seven years. She is also co-author of several
books with Margie Carter. This article was extracted from their latest book Designs for
children’s previous block constructions. The children use
Living and Learning, Transforming Early Childhood Environments, published by these Invitations as launching points for revisiting their
Redleaf Press. work, adding complex ideas, and trying new skills.

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■ Invitations to offer activities and experiences with approach to organizing and offering materials as “Gifts” for
particular content knowledge. learning. The educators from the schools of Reggio Emilia,
Italy, talk of “provocation” and have given us innovative
Designing Invitations related to math, science, social ideas for the kinds of materials that engage children and care-
studies, literacy, and other content areas of early childhood ful, aesthetically beautiful ways to display them. I have also
education gives children experiences in wonderful ways learned from many early childhood teachers and caregivers
that are engaging and natural for their active learning and their creative collections of Curriculum Prop Boxes. All
styles. When creating these Invitations I try to highlight a of these sources are worth studying as you seek to enhance
particular skill, concept, or information, and offer an children’s use and learning with materials in your environ-
engaging way to explore or practice the concepts. For ment.
example, I created a small sensory tub filled with lavender
scented rice and included an array of hollow, plastic, three The most important source for my learning about collecting
dimensional geometric shapes for children to fill with the and arranging Invitations in my child care room has been
rice. As the children work, they are exploring the physical from the children themselves. When children are offered
knowledge related to geometric forms and spatial relation- interesting open-ended materials, which are thoughtfully
ships. We name the words for the shapes as they are filling combined and arranged, you will see them work in amazing,
them — cube, cone, etc. yet predictable ways.

■ Invitations to introduce children to new concepts or events. ■ Exploring — Children are drawn to the sensory aspect of
materials.
When I want to plan for a particular topic or concept, I
arrange a collection of materials and props in an accessible Principle: Look for collections that have textures, interesting
place in the room for the children to visit and use through- surfaces for touching or looking at or looking through,
out the day. I observe their actions and record their conver- things that make sounds or move in interesting ways.
sations so I can uncover their ideas and understandings for Natural materials are always a good source for this kind of
further planning. For example, I assembled a display of exploration.
dolls with different skin colors, photos, and books about
the Civil Rights Movement and differences among people. I ■ Transforming — Children are completely mesmerized with
left them out a few weeks before the celebration of Dr. transforming materials and rearranging the world around
Martin Luther King’s birthday. As the children interacted them.
with the materials, I took note of what they seemed to
know and understand about the life of Dr. King. I was sur- Principle: Look for materials and substances that can be
prised to discover how little the children knew about this changed, moved, reconfigured, or otherwise have some
great man, but also heartened to see their intense interest in kind of cause and effect quality.
his life and work around issues of fairness. The informa-
tion and interactions spurred by this simple Invitation ■ Organizing and Designing — With an interesting, varied
helped me design more meaningful activities around the collection of materials preschool children will organize
holiday celebrations, based on the children’s ideas and them by their attributes or use them in beautiful designs.
awareness.
Principle: Find collections of materials that have similarities
Principles for Designing Invitations and differences and can be used for sorting, patterning,
and designing.
As I have been studying how to collect and create Invitations,
I have drawn inspiration from many sources. Maria Montes- ■ Building and Constructing — Young children like to put
sori and her well-known materials and methods, including things together in relationship to each other, to connect
Practical Life activities has made such an important contribu- things to other things, and to use building and construction
tion to my practice. Fredrick Froebel, known as the father of materials to represent many aspects of their ideas and
kindergarten and the inventor of blocks, described his understandings.

May/June 2004 Child Care Information Exchange 39

 Principle: Along with typical early childhood construction lected and carefully placed materials help children focus on
materials, seek out interesting shapes and sizes of items for what is available and spark their ideas and actions. When
building as well as things that can be used to decorate con- arranging the display, it is important to position the materials
structions. I also look for loose parts and recycled materials in an orderly fashion so the children can see what is available
that resemble parts of something else, such as an airplane and the possibilities for their use.
wing, a boat shape, or a dinosaur’s scales.
■ Designate an accessible location with enough space for one
■ Dramatizing — With limited props preschool-age children to four children to work with the Invitation, such as a low
will turn anything into dramatic play. shelf, counter top, or small table. If I’m creating an Invita-
tion in a regular area of the room, I make sure it is out of
Principle: Keep an eye out for props and figures that can be the way of the typical use and traffic flow.
added to any of the above background materials for an
adventure or story. ■ Provide a background for the materials such as a cloth or a
tray to highlight the materials and define the work area. I
■ Drawing — Drawing is a natural medium for young think of this as offering figure/ground support like a
children to express their ideas. puzzle, or a blank artist’s palette to invite the work that will
be done.
Principle: Regularly provide tools for children to draw and
write as a part of Invitations. ■ Offer collections of like objects, for example all metal tools
in the sensory table, all wood containers for sorting, or all
■ Reading — Children will thoughtfully study books and natural baskets for storage. These like objects create a
visual information related to a collection of props they have context for the materials so the Invitation does not look
been using for exploring and representing. cluttered.

Principle: Include resource books, stories, photos, posters, ■ Place like objects in baskets near the tools and materials
diagrams, and instructions to enrich the use of the materials they can be used with so the children can see what is
by offering new suggestions and extensions, and support available and how the materials relate to each other.
the development of literacy skills.
■ Arrange the materials in beautiful ways that suggest how
Collecting
Arranging
and they might be used. For example, design a beginning
Displaying Invitations pattern with tiles, partially build a small construction, offer
an example of a simple drawing done with colored pencils,
The set of materials I gather depends on the focus of the place the correct number of beads in the section of a tray
Invitation I am creating. I always make sure that the collection with the corresponding numeral.
has at least three or four aspects from the list above so the
children will have a variety of options for combining and Scouting for Invitations
using the materials. I am always searching for items that con-
vey a sense of magic and wonder, treasures that beg to be a Once you begin providing interesting open-ended materials
part of a drama or creation as well as those that are substan- and observe the marvelous ways the children use them, you
tial and have an important aspect or function. For example, in will be eager to search for and provide more. Always be on
an Invitation to explore stones, I gathered a set of identical the lookout in thrift stores, craft stores, garden shops, and
stones of varying sizes that are smooth and heavy to touch; garage and estate sales. You can develop an eye for the perfect
they can be seriated by size, balanced and stacked into a treasure based on what you have seen children do with simi-
tower, or designed as a habitat for a drama using a family of lar materials. You can also take a chance and offer children
plastic snakes. Included with the collection are books about something that jumps out and captures your own curiosity.
designs in nature, rocks, and snakes. It’s always delightful and surprising to see the children’s
unique ideas and approaches. What better way to offer learn-
I have found that the way materials and props are offered is ing experiences — as an invitation to wonder, explore, and
as critical to their use as what is offered. Thoughtfully col- create in as many ways as possible!

40 Child Care Information Exchange May/June 2004