Loose Parts

Using Loose Parts as educational material is not new. Preschool teachers have been junkyard scroungers for 50 years. We’ve been collecting potty paper tubes, wood scraps, kitchen utensils, yards of fabric, pieces of plastic, nuts, bolts, leaves, twigs, and ‘stuff’ for use in the classroom for a long, long time.

What is new is the return to the fact that one-use plastic toys and worksheets do not give children the opportunities for choice, creativity, and REAL learning – and that realization IS a great thing.

(REAL learning is learning that contains SARA – Selection, Action, Reflection, and Application. It is child-initiated or child-chosen; it is active; it can be reinforced by reflection through words, drawings, pretend, song, dance, and even print; and it can be applied to ‘old’ and new uses).

Young children learn best by:

• Movement
• Sensory Operations
• Manipulation
• Construction (and destruction)
• Role Play
• Expression

The best way for us to give our children opportunities to use these methods is to offer them open-ended experiences with loose parts – both natural (stones, twigs, leaves, gravels, etc.) and manmade or man-tweaked (blocks, beads, nuts, bolts, keys/locks, food containers/lids, and the like).

As they move, feel, manipulate, build, pretend, and talk, draw, and write about their play with loose parts, the children will develop the skills of intelligence, language-literacy, math, science, social studies, fine motor, and social-emotional wholeness they need for success in school and in life.

Finding Loose Parts – Though nuts are great examples of Loose Parts, you don’t have to go nuts collecting Loose Parts. You do not have to go to the store and buy stuff to use as loose parts. You do not have to go on Pinterest and see ‘pretty’ arrangements of loose parts. Here’s an easier way: ask your parents to save ‘stuff’ – give them a list; take your kids outside and watch as they collect stuff that interests THEM; make sure your loose parts are safe for the children; and use your store-bought materials (legos, duplos, Lincoln logs, counters, blocks, & builders – all those “manipulatives” you’ve already got – and let the children use them as loose parts with open-ended, creative, wacky, ugly, ORIGINAL intention.

Loosen Up!