The Power of Loose Parts Play

A Maple Syrup sensory bin at Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Have you ever wondered why children are fascinated by the box their new toy arrives in or is always trying to pick up a stick? The theory of Loose Parts by Simon Nicholson explains it well. He stated, “In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kinds of variables in it.” In a child’s mind, all those loose bits of string, sticks, and other “treasures” are really components for building and creating.

            Last year, my youngest son had a simple request for his birthday present: “Sticks, lots of sticks!” He knew and recognized the power of a simple loose part that is actually included in the Toy Hall of Fame. To a child, a stick can be a sword, a writing utensil, a fence post, a fairy wand, or more. The possibilities are endless. Even adults get into the power of Loose Parts Play. A couple of years ago, I was able to work alongside Patrick Dougherty who never outgrew his affinity for sticks. Today, he makes twig sculptures all over the world, using a whimsical approach in outdoor spaces. Just visit Fernwood Botanical Gardens and Nature Preserve to see Take Five! and explore how he has taken the theory of Loose Parts to the next level!

A Loose Parts Spider!

            I experience the benefits on a regular basis as I host various activities and learning experiences at Woodlawn Nature Center. We set up a Loose Parts Play area that contains shelves of sticks, pinecones, tiles, fabric, blocks, acorn caps, milkweed pods, and more. Children (and sometimes adults!) use these various pieces to make creations that explore the natural world and help them make sense of what they are learning.

            One girl had attended our Nature Preschool group on a Monday morning. Our topic was birds. She returned on Friday, visiting the Loose Parts Play Area. In her normal play, she built an anatomically correct bird out tree cookies, pinecones, pipe cleaners, and sweet gum balls. She was able to tell us about the beak, talons, wings, and body parts. In her normal play, she was making sense of what she was learning and demonstrating her understanding of the natural world around her through Loose Parts Play.

            Additionally, the Nature Explore nationally certified classroom at Woodlawn Nature Center has areas to explore Loose Parts Play. Whether children are dragging long branches to make their own Dougherty inspired twig sculpture, working together to lift a tree cookie to build a ramp, or creating a fort out of long pieces of outdoor fabric, children are able to use loose parts to create and build. This builds and strengthens their connection to nature.

Educators work together to build a vehicle
with loose parts at the
Indiana Early Childhood Convention

            Benefits of Loose Parts Play abound. Besides the imagination and creativity, loose parts play promotes cooperation, experiences using all the senses, concrete examples of abstract concepts, developmentally appropriate practices, ownership of one’s learning, inclusive play, and moving, learning, and fun! This is learning!

            Loose Parts Play generally is open-ended. Items can be combined in many different ways. There are no specific directions. The participants determine how the materials will be used. The materials can be adapted in many ways. A Sweet Gum ball may be a wheel on a car one minute, or the eye of a bird the next minute.  Richard Louv suggested, “Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.”

            What are the components of Loose Parts? Almost anything! We typically use a combination of natural materials and found objects or discards from industry. Woodlawn Nature Center is always looking for donations of items that might fit into these categories to help fulfill its mission of connecting others to nature. Some examples include pinecones, sticks, tree cookies, wooden or wool balls, sand, water, fabric, clay, picture frames, twine, nuts, mulch, stones, straw bales, leaves, boxes, and blocks. As I shared the theory of Loose Parts Play with local Indiana Master Naturalists, many remarked this is just how they used to play as children. As electronics and overscheduled lives have crept into our world, our children do not have as many opportunities for natural free play like this.

            Loose Parts Play can be set up as a station, included in the classroom as a writing prompt, used as an impromptu activity on the trail, as a pretest or assessment of learning, as nature art, in a sensory bin, and more! The possibilities are endless.

Want to learn more about Loose Parts Play? Check out the Facebook Group Loose Parts Play for ideas and suggestions. Educators and parents from around the world share how they are using Loose Parts. I will also present “Loose Parts Play for Parents” at Woodlawn Nature Center on February 26, 2016, at 6:30 pm. The cost is $3/person, with proceeds going directly to operating costs of the Center. The parent workshop will explore the theory of Loose Parts Play, explaining why children often seem more intrigued with the box than the toys we buy them, looking at open-ended toy options, and touching on how to use Loose Parts effectively in the home environment. Reservations are appreciated by emailing woodlawnnaturecenteronline@gmail.com.

Additionally, watch for upcoming programs at Woodlawn Nature Center, such as Nature Inspired Tinkering in April, Fairy Wings and Wild Things in May, Pop-Up Adventure Play and International Mud Day in June, and our regularly scheduled nature play days! See Loose Parts Quotes and Loose Parts Worksheets on the blog! 

Valentine's Day Nature Activities

We pulled some nature activities together to share at our local nature center, Woodlawn Nature Center. We had a basket of pine cones, sticks, and sweet gum balls, adding pipe cleaners, pom poms, and valentine colored yarns. The pom poms and pipe cleaners are easy for little hands to coax into the pinecones. It helps with exploring seeds and seed dispersal in pine cones as well! 

 

Really, this activity could be adapted for ANY holiday--just switch out the colors of the materials to match the holiday! 

It was neat to see the older kids get into it, as they brought a different level of experimentation to the loose parts. One made a bag full of acorns from a recycled mesh bag. He's planning an experiment to see how long it takes the birds and squirrels to eat them. 

 

We had a Valentine's book collection. To be honest, there is an opportunity for nature themed Valentine's books. I'm not sure what that might look like, but it's always nice to have themed books! I have had this "Love Bugs" pop up book forever, but it's not really science based.

We also had a station of hearts in nature. I have a set of heart shaped nature pictures from Nature Explore; however, I don't see them online. You could make some of your own pictures or from images found online. We included some nature "shape" activities to go with this center.  I like that the backs of the cards have a variety of questions, activities, movements, etc. to extend the learning on the cards. These could be brought along on a hike, staged to find on a hike, and/or used to look at/experience once a week. 

I've loved this little book, Discovering Nature's Alphabet. (aft link) We looked at the simple lines in nature the form letters/shapes.

We had another table full of Valentine's stuff, such as stickers, paper, cut outs, etc. to make your own Valentine. 

On the light table there was an invitation with tissue paper, laminated heart doilies, laminated tissue hearts, etc. 

We also worked on fine motor skills, making bird feeders with cheerios on pipe cleaners. With a little adult help, it was easy to make a heart shape to put on a tree. Other years, we have cut out cardboard hearts, spread peanut butter on them, rolled in bird seed, and hung from a tree. It was fun and easy to put this together and less messy than the peanut butter!

Part of the fun is finding a good spot to leave it in the woods! 

I think what we enjoyed most was a little heart hike. There are MANY variations of how this might be done. I laminated a variety of hearts--doilies, tissue paper, etc. I just used what I had in my Valentines box. I laminated as I wanted them to be durable over several uses and wanted to use them outside where I knew it might be snowy/wet. Here are a few ideas on using them. How might you use them? 

• Find things you love in nature on your walk. Take a picture with the heart to document what you loved. If desired, make a book out of the experience. This would be good with an early childhood class, capturing the children's words to document the experience and caption the photo.
• Leave a trail of hearts for others to find! Let others find the hearts on the path (schedule with another group). Leave the hearts near interesting items that they may enjoy as well. 
• Hide the hearts before heading out to find them with your little ones. 
• Find items in nature or outside that match the colors of the hearts. 

Happy Valentine's Day! Need more ideas? Check out ideas we've pinned on Pinterest for Valentine's Day for lots of inspiration!

The DoSeum: San Antonio's Children's Museum

We love going to museums, so try to visit as many as we can while we are traveling. We used our membership to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (Groupon deal!) to go the DoSeum for free! There was even free, convenient parking. The concept of the DoSeum, is to DO things and be active participants in what we encounter. We had a delightful day at the museum. As we approached the building, we were greeted by Learn, Explore, Create--what a great motto for life! The website says it's "the only children's museum just for kids where you learn by doing, creating and tinkering--instead of just looking and listening." These are sound educational principles! Having just set up a tinkering space in our own house, we appreciate visiting places we can visit that allow us to DO things!

Attractions inside varied. There was a huge wind tunnel you could actually go inside, with various fabrics to try them out in the wind. The butterfly wings and kites were cool, though they really just liked all the wind! There was also a large screen that senses where your body is to interact with the scenario. In this screen, our arms became large birds finding food. I assume they can change out the screen to keep the area fresh. 

It was interesting to see their "snow" as we are typically used to plenty of snow in northern Indiana. This open invitation included simple cotton balls and tape. Changing things up slightly like this gives additional ways to interact. Additionally, they had white soft balls that served for snowball fights. When there isn't snow around, you learn to get creative, right? 

The outdoor space was inviting with some adventure, such as this rope bridge. The youngest did great on it. 

There was also a huge "water table on steroids" equivalent. My youngest would have been here the whole time if he could have, even though the water was closed down, perhaps for the season. There were balls, boats, and many ways to explore how water works. 

This was part of the climbing fort. I love seeing lots of wood. Additionally, there was whole section of logs at various angles to climb. They had fun, despite the funny faces! One thing I missed in this section was loose parts. I'm a huge proponent to loose parts and love to see opportunities to build, create, and make something new in the environment. 

There was a small hill, plants, and trees nearby. The grass was artificial--wonder if it's hard to grow there or it just gets too much use there? 

Inside, the museum had a whole are for younger children to promote dramatic play. The airplane allowed you to be captain, passenger, baggage handler, etc. It was interesting to see how much they enjoyed doing x-rays on the luggage! Simple props like a captain's jacket helped facilitate the play. In the veterinarian's station there were several ways to investigate the animals in their care, such as stuffed animals, cages, clipboards with patient sheets, band-aids, scrubs, and more. They also had a little post office, construction area, grocery store, eatery, gas station with car, etc. This was all enclosed with an attendant at the front so kids didn't wander off on their own; however, all the children I saw were actively engaged with all the options for dramatic play! 

Another section for the older kids included Spy Kids--learning how to be a spy. They learned secret codes, storytelling, geometry, problem solving, and more.

Another exhibit focused on light and sound, with some homemade options using found objects and mallets to create interesting sounds. The whole exhibit (not much is pictured) allowed you to be a DJ mix master and see how sound affects and interacts with us, even the sounds of nature. You could use mirrors to manipulate light, too.

On the other side of the building was a cool tree house with nearby gardens and "stream". There were plenty of plants and inviting spaces to enjoy the outdoors. You could wade in the stream, sail boats down in, and more.

Our kids kept trying to make dams (it was his science fair project, too!), but I don't think they were very effective. Glad there were some loose parts in these areas. 

The whole area was aesthetically pleasing and designed with children in mind, giving safe places to explore. 

The sand pit with conveyer belt was another favorite!

Upstairs had a tinkering space, called Innovation Station. Love the name! The website describes it as, "Children are encouraged to evaluate, try, fail, re-evaluate and try again. Innovation Station appeals to multiple types of intelligences and eschews lengthy instructions for more intuitive learning."

Yes! We loved the wind tunnels--we need one of these closer! I've been investigating DIY options, but haven't been able to source the acetate to make one yet. I like how they included the design process. 

This whole area had lots of loose parts to try various options in the wind tunnel and/or to build something with blocks. 

There were also options to try ramps and balls. You could change and tinker with the options. 

There was more! They had areas with tables so different activities could be put out for special events or themes. There was a large room with maps (including huge state pieces to put together!) and ways to interact with our global outreach. There was a video screen hooked up to a museum in Mexico where we could use a white board to talk to someone there. My Spanish skills came in handy! ;-) There was a multipurpose area that was used for snowball fights and an icy wonderland, but it was closed when we were there. I assume they change what is here often. There was also an imaginative area that had "caves" and "nests" that left lots to the imagination. This also could easily have costumes and such changed out for a different feel to the space. There was a section with tubes and balls the children enjoyed manipulating as well. It's great visiting spaces that help us Learn, Create, and Explore! 

Woodpecker Wham! Activities

I did a series of programs with different audiences over the weekend on Woodpeckers at Woodlawn Nature Center. Can you believe there is not much out there as far as teaching aids to use with woodpeckers? Believe me, I hunted to find what I did! I also created a few things, too. If you use any of these ideas, feel free to let us know!

I have mentioned the book Woodpecker Wham! by April Pulley Sayre various times in the past. She has great nature books for children! I was inspired by this book to create these experiences. It was great when she gave us a shout out on Facebook as "creative and passionate" people make her book come to life. See my review of the book here and a related blog post about Woodpeckers in our area. This gives a good overview and links to resources with more information about woodpeckers. I reviewed these to make the woodpecker clues and to have information to share at the presentations.

I hosted a few programs:

• Nature Play--activities available if people wanted to use them, I read the book if someone is interested and talked about woodpeckers while children played and created.
• Woodpeckers in Winter--developed a PowerPoint of the woodpeckers in our area, sharing information on identification, behaviors in winter, how designers look at woodpeckers for inventions, attracting woodpeckers to yards, deterrents from woodpecker damage, and quizzing the participants with the use of woodpecker clues.
• Family Nature Club--read the book, short run through the PowerPoint to identify woodpeckers in our area, guided hike looking for signs of woodpeckers, good woodpecker habitat, brought puppets and clues to test woodpecker knowledge on our hike. Inside once again, stations were set up to reinforce what we learned about woodpeckers. 

Printable Resources I Created:
Woodpecker Puppets or Matching Cards
Woodpecker Clues

Here are the stations I set up:

Puppets and Matching Cards--I printed out (see printable above) two sets of the woodpeckers in our area, cutting them out and laminating. One set was taped to paint sticks for puppets. The others were for matching with our woodpecker clues (see printable above). We found the woodpeckers in the book, used puppets during the PowerPoint presentation to match with the clues, took the puppets on our hike to reinforce the concepts, and used the puppets for PLAY! Play is always an important concept for learning. See a related post on using play to learn about animals here. The woodpeckers even found wood for drilling.

Build a Woodpecker--Provide "loose parts" to build woodpeckers. I brought in Magformers (a favorite in our house--actually my husband's toy!) and a basket full of shells, nuts, golf tees, and other natural materials. Can you see a woodpecker in these examples? We used the puppets as examples, so we could pay attention to the shape, coloring, etc. This could be much more complex if desired. What I love about loose parts play? No artwork to store or recycle! See my post on resources and quotes about Loose Parts Play. I even have a Loose Parts Play Facebook group if you'd like to connect with others around the world using Loose Parts Play for learning. 

Fold a Woodpecker--I found an origami guide sheet to make woodpeckers! It's pretty nondescript, but offers another way to connect to woodpeckers. We build many skills by following the directions, making precise folds, etc. I used to teach elementary school in Japan--glad we could make cross cultural connections, too. 

Reading and Coloring--I had Woodpecker Wham! and Vulture View (by the same author) out on a table with coloring sheets, information sheets about woodpeckers from Birds & Blooms magazine in sheet protectors, a quiz from B&B, a poem about woodpeckers, and bird observation journal sheets.

 

Craft a Bird--A volunteer (thanks, Annie!) had an idea to make paper birds like this. She cut out the various pieces after creating a pattern, figured out feet with twisty ties (cool idea!), and

 

Extension Ideas:

• Build a woodpecker nesting box
• Make homemade suet to attract woodpeckers
• Use props (such as goggles, a bill, etc.) to show unique adaptations of woodpeckers
• Create action cards from the various woodpecker action in the book to act out while on a hike or during story time
• Find a readers theater to share about woodpeckers
• Read traditional stories about woodpeckers, like Hiawatha
• Share videos of woodpeckers in action--maybe have tablets with some preloaded to view
• Use the Identiflyer (aft link) or an app to learn the calls of different woodpeckers
• Print large pictures of the birds, using yarn to create a "sign" of each one. Place the picture on the child's back. Play 20 questions around the room, asking others questions to figure out the birds. This can also be done with the animals and info sheets in folders to discuss. 

Here are a few shots from our guided hike. We had a great family of girls who are always outside and a new family of boys that obviously have a lot of experience in nature. I was glad I could still share a few things to help extend their experience, too. :-) We found good habitat for woodpeckers, talked about what they eat, and the kids actually found 2 woodpeckers--a downy and a red-bellied! That was neat to see them in action! 

It was a beautiful day to be outside and we could have stayed outside for longer!

 

It was neat to see the kids building woodpeckers and such after we came back inside after the hike. They were really getting into their building, creating woodpeckers (left), complicated bird houses with several levels (picture on the right), and more! 

They had lots of fun!