I love all of your questions. I like to have a carpet on the floor adjacent to the math shelves and a table nearby. the child can choose where to take the math activity. Usually they just use the carpet unless someone is there. If it is a board game then they usually take it to a table although checkes/chess seems to be popular with a child each on a stool with a stool in between them for the game board. Yes they can transport loose parts to another part of the room and they can access other loose parts to add onto their play, especially if they are using the tinker tray for story play. The jars are always in the counting collection so they know the jar goes there, the tinker trays are always on the same shelves so they know they go there. If they get a acrylic box of loose parts then they know that the loose parts go to the loose parts shelf. they seldom use all of the objects in the containers so they easily recognize what was in the container. Because we use loose parts throughout the curriculum every day they are very familiar with them. Also I slowly add to the loose parts so that they are not overwhelmed at clean up. We all clean up together including adults until everything is in it's proper place. It is important to bring things out slowly over time while they learn their job, When I introduce materials slowly then they learn and remember where everything goes. I don't have assigned tables (rules) but often the placement lends it to being used for specific purpose such as math. I do often have a dedicated inquiry table or clay table which is an extra table in the room and displays stay on the table for a long time. Sometimes it gets moved into the hall because the room starts to feel full. Some years we have a loose parts table or story play table. It really depends on the amount of space in the room. Last spring my Kinders really wanted a second story play table and so we hunted and found an old 2 x3 orange table and they loved it, a month later they decided it should be a dedicated loose parts table. :)

Thank you for you interest A provocation is intended to provoke a deeper understanding and is usually linked to a project or inquiry. For example, my students are exploring clay and so the first day I set out lumps of fresh clay on boards at the table with no tools, they explored the clay with their hands and fingers pushing, pinching, patting, etc. After a few days I added some simple tools and photos of simple sculptures from last year's children. This provoked the children and their imagination soared. Each week we worked with the clay until they were finally ready to create a permanent sculpture. In Reggio one class was studying chairs and they used their clay skills to create chairs. An invitation is setting the table to invite the children to explore.familiar or new materials. I often set a table with watercolour paper, a brush, a jar of water and paint palette in the Atelier in the morning or set up the block s to invite the children to build a structure I may even add a small basket of animals to see how they can connect the two materials blocks and animals or set out the small world play table with a simple set up to invite the children to use the materials to create stories. In summary a provocation provokes a deeper understanding and an invitation invites children to use the materials in different ways. Liz

@@reggiokinder4561 Thank you very much for your clarification.

@@reggiokinder4561 Thank you very much for your clarification.

Hi Phin, loose parts are open ended materials. Playing with open ended materials creates an opportunity for children to make deicsions, using their imagination, repurpose materials, be creative, handle different textures, sizes and colours. Often through loose parts play many social skills are acquired such as persistence, problem solving, sharing, planning, revisiting ideas and much more. For example, our students use blocks to build a dance floor, a ship, a house, a den, and excavator and lots more.

@@reggiokinder4561 Thank you so much for your explanation.