Integrating Loose Parts into our Curriculum

Learning with loose parts is an exciting concept based on the premise that if you give children a wide variety of open-ended and interesting materials, they will be able to construct, invent, create, and devise abundant ways to utilize these objects. Our loose parts curriculum was developed to stimulate and foster a child’s creative imagination and critical thinking. 

Why are loose parts so engaging? Because loose parts offer children multiple opportunities rather than single outcomes. Unlike a puzzle or game, there is no right or wrong way to play with these materials. Children are active players with loose parts. The variability and creative possibilities these materials offer for the students are endless.

Some reasons why we love loose parts:

• Loose parts involve materials made up of different kinds of textures, colors, and shapes. They are inexpensive, colorful, and can be found everywhere:  around the home, in dollar stores and recycling centers!
• Loose parts encourage children to experiment, manipulate, arrange and rearrange the objects resulting in a myriad of imaginative creations. Children are free to explore and experiment in whatever way that makes sense to them.
• Loose parts can be utilized to explore more complex relationships among the materials such as balance, sound, weight, patterns, etc.
• In playing with and manipulating loose parts, all areas of development are involved. Children are involved socially, in problem solving, using their fine and gross motor skills, as well as math, science, language and literary skills to name a few of the many areas involved. 

Using their creative imaginations, children here at our school use feathers, rocks, shells, yarn, twigs, tiles, clothespins, and a myriad of other loose parts and found objects to invent, discover and devise new ways to manipulate the items. The tree cookies (large rustic wooden discs), which were introduced last year in our Outdoor Classroom as well as indoors in classes, have been made into towers, stepping stones, wheels for vehicles, turrets for castles, and much more. This kind of play encourages children to consider many possible uses and meanings for the objects with which they are engaged. 

At FJECC, it is my goal to continue integrating what are considered to be the Best Practices in Education for Young Children into our curriculum. In just the short time in which we have presented some loose parts to our students this school year, it has been amazing to see the different approaches each child takes in manipulating the wonderful “stuff” we have gathered. 

We as a staff continue to be inspired by all that we learn, and in turn inspire our students by exciting and novel approaches in early education.

Curious to learn more? These books are excellent resources for families to learn more about how to integrate open-ended materials into play at home: 

• Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children and Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play with Infants and Toddlers by Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky, the two educators who initiated the loose parts curriculum. 
• Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini

Fostering Healthy Development through Play in the Early Years

The changes that have occurred in the last two decades around the societal norms for young children are astounding! Rather than spending time outdoors, playing with friends, and gaining important knowledge though such activities and interactions, a great many children are now often involved in passive—not active—experiences, and the time for free play when they rely upon their imaginations to create fantastical scenarios has greatly diminished. However, play is the vehicle through which a young child learns best, and it’s critical that children have time to play and space to move. 

It can be challenging for parents of young children today to avoid getting caught up in the notion that the earlier one starts exposing a child to academic subjects, the better. The focus on formalized instruction at an early age fails to give children the opportunity to construct important conceptual meaning and understanding for themselves. 

At FJECC, we believe that play is a core activity in a young child’s development, so we look to create a stimulating environment where children are encouraged to explore with our support. 

For example, when children play with blocks in the classroom or wooden “tree cookies” in our Rita and Adam J. Weiner and Family Outdoor Classroom, they learn about concepts such as size, balance, weight and number, not to mention the physical and social skills they are developing. When our students discover nature’s treasures through scavenger hunts or plant herbs and vegetables in our organic garden, they are acquiring lots of knowledge in an active way. Whether climbing on our outdoor structure, dancing to the beat of music or creating rocket ships and castles, important learning is taking place! Creating an obstacle course on the playground, hiding amongst pine branches to practice the art of camouflage or transforming ice into water, all such activities lead to the acquisition of important intellectual concepts through play. 

When children are involved in dramatic play, they often use gadgets and materials found in the environment to represent objects they need for their scenario. As an example, if they are pretending to drive a car they may pick up an aluminum pie-plate found in the kitchen area to represent the steering wheel, or they may pick up a block to use as a telephone in the dramatic play area. These kinds of representational skills practiced by the children help them to conceptualize an understanding of abstract thinking.

The interactions of children in play prepare them for the give and take required in social relationships. It is through play that children learn how to take turns, share and negotiate. The foundation of all cognitive skills is acquired through play. To quote Albert Einstein, “Play is the highest form of research.” So let us return if at all possible, to a less hurried life for children where they are given lots of opportunity to play, be creative, and use their imaginations. What a blessing it would be for every young child to have this kind of childhood!