How+to+use+Big+Ideas+in+the+classroom

==== - 96 slides - Ministry published powerpoint shows many examples of purposefully planned classroom environments ====

==== (This power point takes a few minutes to load). These 16 stations were set up at the 2013 ECEC conference in Saskatoon. The stations are correlated to the Kindergarten curriculum. The invitations are: 1. Structures, 2. Magnets, 3. Rainbows, 4. Density, 5. Nature, 6. Forest, 7. Recycling, 8. Farm, 9. Winter, 10. Music, 11. Birds, 12. Habitat/Environment, 13. Weather, 14. Buttons, 15. Get Money, 16. Discovery Bottles. The Power Point has 3 or 4 photos of each station - one photo of the curricular connections and 2 or 3 photos of the materials in the invitation. The Power Point file may take a few minutes to download. ====

Click to see other examples of invitations

shared by Tracy Aldridge of NWCS in Plenty.
====When I introduce a Big Idea I present the question to the students and we have a big discussion around it. We talk about what they know, what is interesting to them and what they would like to learn more about. From there we create different invitations in our classroom together. We go through my science tub, puppets, dress-up clothes, art supplies, toys, books and anything else we can think of. We pull anything they think we might need that would help us learn more about our Big Idea. I use their ideas to help me plan our more guided learning time in the day. These usually involve outcome-based learning activities such as experiments, arts education activities, research, etc. My assessment is an ongoing process consisting mainly of completed work, photos and conversations that I make notes on. I use some of the photos in their individual portfolios to show the learning that has happened. I also communicate with parents daily about learning through my blog.====

**Invitations**
====An invitation is an opportunity for students to explore learning. It can be set up in anyway you want to invite learning to happen...I always change my dramatic play, puppet, building and reading areas as well as having a discovery table that we change and add to as we learn.====