"If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any further assistance." -Sir Ken Robinson
What are loose parts? Loose parts can be any found object that children can use to combine, remake, take apart, move, and manipulate. The beauty of this type of play is that there is no "right way" to use the loose parts, they can be used in any combination, and their creations can become anything the child imagines. Loose parts have infinite possibilities that encourages conversation and innovation that can create a lifetime of skills in children.
We also love that loose parts are often natural and recycled materials! We can find so many materials at our fingertips: found objects, recycled items, and nature items.
We use an inquiry based approach as we start exploring loose parts with our children:
- Remembering: What is this called?
- Understanding: Which part do you think...?
- Applying: How would you use...?
- Analyzing: What are you creating?
- Evaluating: What would happen if...?
- Creating: What is your finished result?