LOOSE PARTS CREATING AN EVER CHANGING PLAY ENVIRONMENT

PLAY AREAS with fixed structures can become boring for children because “they have done it and they have been

there” and it is now not as interesting.

“Loose Parts” however, are always changing.

Your play setting should encourage children to interact. Provide children with materials that have no fixed purpose. (E.g. boxes, hollow pipes, large pieces of material). This allows children to decide for themselves how the materials should be used. When you provide children with a large assortment of loose parts they are encouraged to problem solve, cooperate and build things with one another.

WHAT LOOSE PARTS CAN YOU PROVIDE?

STONES

DRIFTWOOD

STUMPS

SHELLS

SAND,

BARK

GRAVEL,

FEATHERS

FABRIC

STRAW

TWIGS

CHALK

WOOD

CUPS

PALLETS

SCARVES

BALLS,

RIBBONS

BUCKETS

TARPAULINS

BASKETS

SHEETS

CRATES

BLANKETS

BOXES

WIRE

CARDBOARD

ROPE

PLASTIC

GUTTERS

TYRES

SMALL PLUNGERS

SHELLS

STRING

SEEDPODS

TINS

WOOD

OLD DVDS

PLAY DOUGH

CARDBOARD

CYLINDERS

LIDS

Loose parts can be used anyway children choose.• Loose parts can be adapted and manipulated in

many ways. • Loose parts encourage creativity and imagination. • Loose parts develop more skill and competence than

most modern plastic toys• Loose parts can be used in many different ways• Loose parts can be used in combination with other

materials to support imagination• Loose parts encourage open-ended learning. • Children choose loose parts over fancy toys.

It is important to present the loose parts in an appealing way to children, which also allows you to keep them in some sort of order. EG. A basket of stones and a crate of sticks rather than an untidy pile of stick and stones.

456B Harris Street Ultimo NSW 2007 Australia T: (02) 9212 3244 F: (02) 9518 8199 E: network@networkofcommunityactivities.org.au W: www.networkofcommunityactivities.org.au

LOOSE PARTS = IMAGINATION + CREATIVITY

Kids really get to know the environment if they can dig it, beat it, swat it, lift it, push it, join it, combine different things with it. This is what adults call creative activity...a process of imagination and environment working together.

- Robin Moore

Children don’t always use equipment the way the adult

world expects them to.

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 playspaces for children in a big way. Nicholson believed that it is the ‘loose parts’ in our environment that will empower our creativity.