Loose Parts

"All children are born as creative beings, curious about the world 
and keen to experiment and discover new things"

The Theory of Loose parts is an idea adapted from architectural design that suggests that materials that can be moved around, designed and resigned, and tinkered with create more opportunities for creative engagement. 

In preschool loose parts encourage open-ended learning. They can be used and manipulated in many ways encouraging creativity and imagination. They provide many opportunities for visual discrimination, fine motor practice, language, and story telling.

In our classroom, loose parts started as a source of rich, descriptive language as the children engaged with the treasures. Here are some examples of the language they used:
shiny green rock
stinky flower
big acorn
broken
stick balls
nice, flat, green rock
 little tiny button

 The preschoolers experimented with hitting and rubbing different parts together to create sounds. They explored their physical properties noticing if they were rough or smooth- "When you rub it on your face it feels good". The loose parts started conversations connecting their own experiences "I have a shell I found that's tiny like this". They use fine motor muscles to pick up and manipulate the small pieces while balancing and exploring sizes while finding what would fit inside. 

As the year progressed loose parts were incorporated into play-doh, math, and block activities in the classroom. 










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The Three Little Pigs


Our Three Little Pig Study gave the preschoolers many opportunities to re-tell and create their own versions of the story. Reading many different versions gave them new ideas to incorporate into their play. It also provided many conversations about where authors get their ideas and how they can decide to change familiar stories to make it their own.

One of the most favored ways to create stories was through play-doh and building materials.






“The wolf poked himself on the prickles. There are a lot of chimneys. These are the buddy wolves, they both go up. The lava destroyed the house.”
-Henry

“The rocks are the pigs. Two wings fly the pigs away to Utah. There are lots of chimneys.”
-Abby

“Mine has a slimy person to get all the pigs. That’s my story of the three little pigs. No wolf, just the slimy guy”
-Ronald



The story even inspired a made-up song:


“The wolf came to the straw house and blowed it down
and the stick house
but not the bricks.
The wolf got hurt
and the pigs
and the wolf not gonna blow
no more houses down"



The preschoolers engaged in many opportunities for writing while creating plans for houses in the block area and making their own books.







"Once upon a time"








Using tools to draw plans for a sturdy house













Ramps, Force, and Motion

What objects roll down a ramp and
what objects do not?

The preschoolers created ramps with different angles by changing the height of the raised end. They made predictions and tested the ramps to see which design made the balls go faster and further. As they became familiar with these new concepts, the children began to wonder about sending other objects down the ramps. We gathered items from around the classroom to compare how they made it down the ramp.





Why didn't it roll down the ramp?
“Because it’s not a circle”
“Because it’s too small and can’t roll”

Why did it roll down the ramp?
“It has wheels that are a circle that it rides on”



They quickly noticed the difference between how the objects got down the ramp when we used a wooden person block


“He slides like us. He doesn’t go around and around”


Using what they learned about adjusting the height of the ramp, the preschoolers tested to see how far they could get the cars to go.



They decided that adding the numbers 
would be a good way to determine how far it went.

“I got it all the way to ten by
making the ramp higher”
-Zachary


While discussing ramps some of the children noticed that it was harder to get up the ramp than it was to go down. This started a new conversation about force and motion. We talked about pushing and pulling and gravity. The preschoolers learned that gravity pulls people and objects back down to the earth.

We used our these ideas to create art using
gravity, pushing, and pulling.



“When you put one side up, the ball rolls down and when 
you put the other side it rolls down”
-Henry


“You use the force to push it away!”
-Gavin



Ramps are a natural part of play in our classroom now. The children are experimenting with different materials and structures. They are building, testing, and re-building following the engineering design process. This allows them to problem solve, work together, and share ideas.