A huge thank you to Reclaimed Timber Traders- 5 Matipo Lane Palmerston North for donating all of our outdoor loose parts.
Children usually prefer play that stimulates their curiosity and gives free reign to their imaginations and creativity. We believe that one of the best ways to enhance their natural curiosity is to introduce a wide variety of the materials we call "loose parts" into their play settings.
Loose parts mean alluring, beautiful, found objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control and change while they play. Children can carry, combine, redesign, line up, take apart, and put loose parts back together in almost endless ways.
The material comes with no specific set of directions, and they can be used alone or combined with other materials. Children can turn them into whatever they desire. These objects invite conversations and interactions, and they encourage collaboration and cooperation. Put another way, loose parts promote social competence because they support creativity and innovation. All of these are highly valued skills in adult life today.
Loose parts involve things like:
- Logs
- Tyres
- Branches
- Yarn
- Moss
- Napkin rings
- Wood chips
- Pipes
- Stones
- Rocks
- Pots
- Spindles
- Chair legs
- Buttons
- Fabric
- Bark
- Tiles
- Tubes
- Pitchers
- Crates
- Trays
- Funnels
- Boxes
- Boards
- ETC
If you can support us in supplying any of these materials, we would love to have them for our outside area.
Lunch time visitors from around the school.
Loose parts possess infinite play possibilities. They offer multiple rather than single outcomes; no specific set of directions accompanies them; no single result is inevitable.
http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2015/loose-parts
