My love affair with loose parts

Kids really get to know the environment if they can dig it, beat it, swat it, lift it, push it, join it, combine different things with it.  This is what adults call creative activity...a process of imagination and environment working together.

- Robin Moore

Loose parts and I have been best friends since way before I even knew that loose parts were an actual thing. 

The small, progressive preschool I chose for my boys -  and later - for myself had an outdoor space rich in loose parts - both natural and man made.  The children had ready access to all manner of sticks, planks of wood, bricks, stones, mesh, fabric, rope, tyres, tree cookies, crates, sand, dirt and mud and - here is the important part - the time and permission to use them in whatever direction their imaginations, creativity and curiosity took them.

Do you know what I noticed?  Children engaged for long periods of rich, co-operative play.  Curiosity sparked and imaginations ignited they followed their own interests for days, and in some cases months. Children became expert problem solvers and dispute resolvers.  There was very little need for "supervision" in terms of behaviour management challenges which was the norm in other centres I had worked at.  

Building ramps

My eyes were opened to the power of loose parts.  I started to sing their praises on my blog, and at last count there were 50 odd posts on loose parts alone.  Why?  What the children did with loose parts knocked my socks off, every single day.

A pile of rocks was moved to a "rock factory".  The rocks were ground by hitting them with bricks.  This evolved into a rock shop.  Rocks were decorated.  Signs were made.  The children at the school next door were invited to come and peruse their wares.  This went on for weeks.

Over time, I noticed that things in the play department were really rocking when the loose parts available supported the schemas in children's play.

Enclosure, trajectory, transporting, positioning, connecting, rotating, transforming - loose parts are the raw materials that support children's innate urges in their play.

Making cubby houses was a constant.  The urge to create spaces of their own is strong.

Resist the urge to step in - unless invited - and you will be amazed where the play takes them.  I promise.

Often a project would ebb and flow - a manic hour of work in the morning and then the work site may sit untouched until the next day.  It may look haphazard but rest assured they know where everything belongs and why.

Making traps continued for months on end.  

 When children play with loose parts, they are not only developing their imagination and creative thinking - they are solving problems, moving their bodies, calculating, measuring, inventing, negotiating, co-operating, respecting and learning how to get along.  

What more could we want than that?  But don't just take my word for it.  Try it yourself and see!

Why There Is No "Climber" in my Play-Based Playground

Now this is kindergarten readiness!! 


In this short 45 second video, two of our soon-to-be kindergarteners demonstrate their ability 

• to build body awareness, strength, and coordination through locomotion activities
• to build awareness of directionality and position in space
• to use both sides of the body to strengthen bilateral coordination
• to build upper body strength and stability to gain controlled movement of shoulders
• to use eye-hand coordination, visual perception and tracking, and visual motor skills in play activities

AND

• to create and articulate a plan in sequence
• to engage in activities that build understanding of words for location and direction
• to use imaginative thought to create something of their own design
• to represent their ideas symbolically
• to work together collaboratively
• to listen to the ideas of others and be flexible in negotiations
• to teach a younger classmate a new skill
• to demonstrate empathy and compassion for a classmate
• to assess and modify risk
• to discuss strategies to prevent injury
• to talk about ways to solve or prevent problems and discuss situations that illustrate that actions have consequences
• to explore and identify space, direction, movement, relative position, and size using body movement and concrete objects
• to listen to and use comparative words to describe the relationships of objects to one another
• to use mathematical thinking to estimate size, distance and mass
• to make predictions about changes in materials or objects based on past experience.
• to manipulate a wide variety of familiar and unfamiliar objects to observe, describe, and compare their properties using appropriate language.
• to understand the physics of a lever and the impact of adjusting the fulcrum
• and to work and learn cooperatively, constructing knowledge together.

Many of these criteria are included in the Massachusetts Department of Education's Early Childhood Program Standards and the Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences. According to this document: "the mark of a superior teacher is the ability to select materials and interact with children in ways that help them learn through their own play and these planned activities. Young children need many and varied opportunities to: 

■ Plan: children consider what they are going to do with materials and how they are going to do it. 

■ Play: children use materials and equipment in ways that best suit their personal curiosity and understanding. 

■ Reflect: children recall things that happened to them, reinforcing or questioning their understandings. 

■ Revisit: children practice skills and replay experiences in many different ways, with each activity refining or modifying previous learning. 

■ Connect: children, with the help of staff, connect new knowledge with past experiences, creating links among subject areas and areas of skill development."

We found when we took our climber out of our playground, the children's play became more creative and complex. The challenges to the children's motor development, their language, their mathematical and scientific thinking and their social interactions became greater when we removed the climber and replaced it with loose parts of all kinds. Now the children dictate their own play instead of being dictated by an immovable, fixed structure that dominates the play space.

These children have accomplished all of this in just 45 seconds! Imagine what they can do in 45 minutes! And beyond! The power of play!

Why There Is No "Math Area" in my Play-Based Classroom

Children are capable, competent mathematical thinkers. Play, organized by children, according to their interests, allows them to create, explore and expand their ideas. What started out as an interest in building an “Elsa castle”, from their obsession with the movie “Frozen”, turned into a playful exploration of height, length and units of measurement.

photos taken in The Big Room at Garden Gate Child Development Center

teachers: Dawn Warner & Delia Gibson

Children are intrinsically motivated to explore mathematical ideas in play. They need lots of time, to think, to discuss, to plan and to collaborate. They need the freedom to combine materials in new and creative ways. They need adults who support their ideas but don’t overtake them. They need to play!