Loose Parts: Provoking Creativity and Wonder In Young Children’s Play (Part 1)

I am often asked about the benefits of ‘loose parts’ and the impact that it has on young learners.

In Early Years classrooms, play props, play materials, and manipulatives encourage social interaction (Quay, Weaver and Neel 1986), constructive play, and dramatic play (Smilansky and Shefatya 1990). In addition, children often play with open-ended play materials (e.g., cardboard boxes, pipe cleaners, and pieces of cloth) longer and in more ways than play materials with well defined intended uses (e.g., tea sets, dolls, trucks, and tool kits) (Bagley and Klass 1997).

The theory of “loose parts” first proposed by architect Simon Nicholson in the 1970's has begun to influence child-play experts and the people who design play spaces for children in a big way. Nicholson believed that it is the 'loose parts' in our environment that will empower our creativity.

So when we consider the following elements that will drive creativity and wonder in play, loose parts certainly has a voice.

-space, including flexible environments and open-ended materials

-time for uninterrupted and extended solitary and collaborative play

-opportunities to extend children’s current understanding through responsive interactions and interventions

In a play, loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. Loose parts can be natural or synthetic.

In the outdoor environment we can provide an array of loose parts for use in play such as stones, stumps, sand, gravel, fabric, twigs, wood, pallets, balls, buckets, baskets, crates, boxes, logs, stones, flowers, rope, tyres, balls, shells and seedpods.

In my experience, I have seen the benefits of providing our young learners with access to these open-ended materials, not just for the sake of developing their creativity. Choice and ownership is certainly the game changer here, as students design, construct, select and implement their ideas.

Some of the other benefits associated to (Hyndman, Benson, Ullah and Telford, 2014) the playing with loose parts include:

-increasing levels of creative and imaginative play

-children play co-operatively and socialise more and loose parts facilitate communication and negotiation skills when added to an outdoor space (Maxwell, Mitchell and Evans, 2008).

-children are physically more active and curriculum outcomes occur through informal play with loose parts (Wagland, 2015)

Providing access to loose parts involves a certain change in mindset, such as allowing projects to be kept in a space that allows for continuous play, and not necessarily tidying up materials at the end of the day. 

Loose parts and associated resources must be accessible physically and stored where they can be reached by children, and as new resources and materials are curated and sourced, a dynamic space with unlimited possibilities starts to unfold.  Our young learners should also know that ‘loose parts’ are available anytime, whenever and can be used however, they wish.

This often involves having some essential agreement or 'preparing for the introduction’ of loose parts to be considered.  As educators, we must remember to regularly replenish and, following student interests, add materials to keep the learning engaging.  Of course, systems to allow students to manage and procure materials would certainly be one of my recommendations.

In my next post we will explore some considerations when
starting out with the 'loose parts' journey.

What are your experiences with loose parts and what was the impact on the learner?