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‘Loose parts’ are ordinary, everyday, open-ended materials that can be manipulated and used in various ways, moved, carried, shared, combined and taken apart in various configurations and designs.
Loose parts are an affordable and practical resource to support children’s play, exploration and cognitive development, and can be easily transformed with children’s imagination. Loose parts can be found in many everyday objects, like household items, natural materials, and even recycled materials. Examples are pebbles, leaves, pinecones, ribbons, buttons, papers, blocks, plastic pipes, cardboard boxes, and metal utensils.
Creative expression with loose parts can be encouraged in all areas of the environment, for example, as children arrange rows of sticks outside, explore different materials in a cosy corner indoors, or add flowers and leaves to their artwork. Loose parts can also be larger parts for making structures, such as tyres, moveable blocks, platforms, ladders, wood boxes, and include natural elements such as water or sand.
What is heuristic play?
Heuristic play is exploratory play with materials and objects. Children handle, explore and make discoveries about the properties and features of objects, and develop ideas for how they might be used or combined and how they relate to each other. For example, children might explore a set of balls, pom poms and other spherical objects alongside a range of containers and tubes. Heuristic play is sometimes provided via a ‘treasure basket’ for infants who are able to sit but are not otherwise mobile.
Loose parts and sensory treasure baskets are safe everyday objects for infants, toddlers and young children to explore. Loose parts and treasure baskets enable open-ended play with no right and wrong way of doing things.
Through July and August, our Visiting Teachers will be supporting Educators to explore the benefits of loose parts, and providing them with a free resource to support this learning. Our upcoming blogs will explore different ways to include loose parts into children's play!
