Loose parts

The beautiful natural aspects of our outside environment are a rich asset in supporting our children to explore Loose Parts play. Loose Parts can be natural or synthetic and consist of materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, taken apart and put back together in various ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. Recently, over the course of a week - we have been exploring Loose Parts play as we endeavor to inspire our children to explore their imagination and creativity on their own terms and in their own unique way. As you will see Loose Parts within our play spaces are open ended, encourage problem solving and are child centered.

Here is a look at the materials we offered.......

    We included coffee lids, milk bottle tops, paper plates, different sized spools, metal rods, paper plates,         long plastic tubing cardboard tubing cut into pieces, old bottles, black foam trays, large paddle pop sticks,      bits and pieces of an old fax machine along with various sized boxes.

These items were offered outdoors, providing opportunity for our children to incorporate them within their play. This generated lots of curiosity as our children arrived, they began to investigate and make new discoveries (Outcome 3: Children Have a Strong Sense of Well-being) as they explored the Loose Parts on offer.

Initially, our children moved around...slowly discovering bits and pieces of Loose Parts as they expressed wonder and interest in their preschool environment (Outcome 4: Children are Confident and Involved Learners).

Our children openly expressed their feelings, ideas and needs (Outcome 1: Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity) as Amelia requested plastic string "Because I want to use those sewing things to make a necklace." Hudson said "I'm not sure what I'm making yet, but I'm going to put all these trays together. I think I will need some sticky tape." 

Jasper agreed with Hudson "I'm going to make a mechanical dragon so I will definitely need some sticky tape." Once Jasper was armed with sticky tape rations from Lani there was no stopping him. He tapped two metal rods together and used three paper plates. "See my dragon Lani, it's got wings." Lani replied "Wow" Jasper added  "I had to use some sticks to keep the head up."  (Outcome 3: Children Have a Strong of Well-being. Outcome 5: Children are effective Communicators).

Hudson used the sticky tape to attach a metal rod to a foam tray "I think I could make a motorbike, one like my dad has. He has a Husaburg you know. I'm going to have a motorbike one day too. A real one!"

Riley and Olivia joined everyone as Lani said "You have to see me if you want some sticky tape, I can rip it for you." Olivia held up a small empty container "I could use this to keep my potion in." Riley replied "Lets go and make a potion. We have to get some flowers first." Zaylia worked quietly along her peers stacking and re-stacking her tower as she combined her gross and fine motor abilities to manipulate each piece of cardboard tubing, using trial and error to build it higher (Outcome 3: Children Have a Strong of Well-being).

Zaylia started stacking the cardboard tubing on the stage but found her tower was too high for her to reach from the ground. She then transferred it to the ground as she moved each piece of tubing from the stage and stacked them on top of one another from the ground up (Outcome 2: Children are Connected with and Contribute to their World).

Obi also had a turn stacking the cardboard tubing "I just wanna make it high so I can knock it down. That's what I like to do" he stated as he explored cause and effect assembling and re-assembling his tower.  

Obi was joined by Seth....Seth would assemble the tower and then Obi would knock it down and visa versa. The boys sat together cooperating as they took turns, responding positively to one another as they giggled when all the pieces came crashing down (Outcome 2: Children are Connected with and Contribute to their World).

Santai held the ends of the plastic tubing in either hand. He put one end up to his mouth and called "Heeelllllloooooo, can anybody hear meeeeeee?" Nathaniel stood beside him "I can" he said. Nathaniel picked up a different piece of plastic piping "Hi" he said softly into the pipe (Outcome 5: Children are Effective Communicators).

Nathaniel returned to the stage on a bike and Seth handed him one end of the plastic piping "Here you go, you can talk." Nathaniel spoke through the plastic piping "Can you hear me?" he asked as  Seth held the piping firmly to his ear with both hands. Seth smiled and said "Yep, I can hear you!" Nathaniel said "You say something in the tunnel now." Nathaniel held his end to his ear as Seth  held the 'tunnel' up he went "ROOOAAAARRRRR" with a big grin on his face. Nathaniel had a giggle. The boys continued to explore the various sounds they could make and had a good giggle (Outcome 5: Children are Effective Communicators).

Rhys and Tayla experimented with different ways of expressing themselves and their ideas as they used the plastic piping to talk to one another and make different sounds. Tayla said "Hello Rhys, this is soooo funny!" Rhys replied "Ooooooooooooo." Tayla thought this was hilarious as she held the piping up and replied with a "Oooooooooooooo." 

This is a just snippet into our Loose Parts play discoveries and experiences, in which we fostered our children in initiating and joining in play as they investigated and explored new ideas and ways of thinking. Our children enjoyed interactions with others as they problem solved, collaborated, clarified and challenged themselves in a variety of ways.