Would you be able to walk past these hands and not have a second look? I don’t think so! Where are those hands going? Why are they there? So many questions can be asked, so many thoughts evoked. My curiosity is certainly sparked. Would I remember this building? For sure, it’s the building with the curious climbing hands reaching up to explore the unknown.

Provocations are powerful, they are images that are etched in our minds and stimulate interesting conversations. They elicit deep feelings and force us to ask different questions.

I am always searching for intruiging ways to make learning fun and interesting, to evoke feelings in our children that will spark curiosity, wonderment and awe. The teacher’s job is not to regurgitate and dictate information but to spark curiosity and guide new conversations that will ultimately lead to new connections. Provocations do just that.

Let me give you an example of how we implement this at our school. We have a giant “Wonder Wall “on our playground, each week we add an item of wonder in our wonder box. The children have a week to speculate what this object could possibly be and what it is used for, they write their predictions on the Wonder Wall, and we have a great reveal in the next school assembly, where a lesson is given on the object of wonder.

The results have been truly amazing, children are by nature curious, imaginative and adventurous. They run to the Wonder Wall every week, big and small and the super tall, and write down reasons for their guesses with surprisingly convincing arguments. Parents and teachers alike spend hours at our wall reading the answers with delight. Our teachers and children have started spending time looking for objects that evoke wonder and awe, things that we take for granted and just used to walk past.

There is so much beauty and truly amazingly interesting things around us each and every day. Stop and start seeing! Teach your children to look for the amazing, the unusual, the magnificent. Keep their natural curiosity alive and have deep conversations about all kinds of possibilities.

Provoke your children to see awe and wonderment all around, spark new learning opportunities and truly experience life through a child’s eyes!

Find out all about the Jew’s harp here.