4 Loose parts

Have you ever given a group of children a box to play with? If you have, you’ll know that they will think up lots and lots of different ways of using it – it could be a car, a rocket, a cave, a tunnel or hundreds of other things. This shows that when children play with an object they do not see it as something with one defined purpose, they see it in terms of what it has the ‘potential to do or be’ (Casey and Robertson, 2019, p. 7).

Objects and materials that provide these open-ended possibilities are often called ‘loose parts’ (Nicholson, 1971). Providing children with environments that allow them to explore, experiment and create with loose parts helps them to use their schemas to support the construction of their knowledge and understanding.

Activity 19.1 Activity 4 Playing with loose parts

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch this video below of a nursery setting.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER

OK. So these are our weaving looms. We introduced these a couple of years ago. And you’ll often hear children telling you what they’re going to do with their blankets once they’re finished. So today the one particular child that was invited into the weaving, she’s just had a new baby sister as well, so she’s really, really eager to make her new sister a lovely blanket like she’s made previously in Tiddlers. So again, it’s that knowing the child, knowing her family really well. And I think she engaged in a lovely conversation with Chloe and is quite excited about finishing this blanket for her sister.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So the mud kitchen area, it’s always here. It’s always got all of the equipment that the children need. However, what’s in here today might have been different to what’s in here yesterday. For example, today is really strong smelling spices that we can smell, whereas tomorrow might be more herbs, which might not have that same sensory experience for the children. There’s always an adult within this area, and they’re always engaging with the children, but they very often will stand back and be invited into their place.

So a lot of our educators are very much internally active, externally passive. So it might look like they’re not actually doing very much, but they’re just waiting to be invited into the play. And that’s whether that’s verbally or whether sometimes they can just be a look or a hand hold. But that’s how that play evolves in the mud kitchen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So of course, we’ve got our loom weaving indoors, and then we’ve got our Willow weaving. So this is our small hand movements, large hand movements. And this is another extension of that weaving. And again, this will look very different each time we do it. It’ll never be replicated. Today, they’ve obviously been some of them practicing their knots. They’ll often seek the adult out if they want support, but they’ll also collaborate on projects together, as well as working from their own ideas. So sometimes this will be long grasses, sometimes it might be branches. This is t-shirt yarn that the children have made inside. So today, we’re having a go at it on a much larger scale. So, yeah, and I think it looks very beautiful.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

End transcript: Video 1

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Comment

In this clip, children are making decisions, choosing activities and resources and deciding whether they want adults to be involved in their play or not. The practitioners tell us how their knowledge of each child informs their practice, and allows the children to use their imagination, to model their own experiences, talk about family and learn about the world around them. This shows us the huge range of opportunities that loose parts can play to support all aspects of babies’ and toddlers’ development.