ABSTRACT
Children interact with people, places and materials and slight changes act as a provocation for new exploration and enquiry. This was exemplified for me in a video, taken in a Reggio Emilia preschool or nido (or nest). It shows how the environment is arranged to provoke learning, seen as an interactive and creative process. One child draws attention by gesture to the way he can mount a horse which he pretends to feed with grass. The educator notices these exchanges and tries to document them with photos or video. This provides evidence to be shared and interpreted by teacher, artist, pedagogista, building their particular perspectives into a possible explanation – a suggested significance in these actions. Children want to explore materials, like clay or glue or pastel, to discover what can be done with them. Adults need to allow children the chance to develop all these creative avenues of communication.
