Block Building Loose Parts Books

Blocks are a great standard loose parts. Blocks turn into so many creations, such as a castle, boat, house, or skyscraper. We love adding in all kinds of loose parts to block play, such as pinecones, tree cookies, acorn caps, sweet gum balls, and more! It extends the play and the imagination.

We found a couple of books on blocks at my son's preschool recently. We can check these titles out, read them at home, and then return them again later. This one might have been out a really long time! I'll get it back next week, I promise!

Block City is a simple book about the creations a boy builds. The whole living room becomes the landscape and setting for his city made of blocks. He adds more and more details and the blocks start looking like animals and people as his city expands. We like adding extras like figurines and animals, as well! At the end, utter destruction befalls the city, just as most block structures are knocked down. It's half of the fun, right? The blocks are then ready for a new excursion!

When I Build with Blocks shows the imagination that comes from block building and the diversity of thought as children build. I like how the kids are pictured in costumes as they imagine themselves in the castle, on the pirate ship, and in the haunted house.

I like that there is a plug at the end of the book reminding children to clean up! I think creations can be left out for a short time occasionally; however, I agree with having a general clean up time. Extended periods of play allow for more complex and elaborate creations. 

How do you use blocks as part of loose parts play? While regular blocks are great, I find that we enjoy communing our blocks with other natural or loose parts elements. We also enjoy taking blocks outside. Find ideas to use blocks as part of Loose Parts Play on my Pinterest Board.

There are SO many types of blocks out there that can work with your space. If you have an outdoor space and plenty of money, the Outlast Blocks from Community Playthings are wonderful! KodoKids also has a variety of block options. Scraps is a new company making cute blocks from industry castoff. What a win!

For home use, I also like the classic Melissa and Doug set or the more colorful set by them. 

Sometimes we use scrap wood for blocks, items from the local ReStore shop, cardboard tube rolls cut into chunks, tree cookie scraps, and so much more! 

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Nature: The Original Seek and Find

I miss our fun summer afternoons! Each day, my four-year-old pulled me out the door to go check on the frogs in the nearby pond and the run-off creek from the pond. We're lucky to have the community pond just in front of our house and the little creek on the border of our place. This has opened up so much to our outdoor time--you can basically find us at the creek most afternoons! Here are a few of the many things we found:

• Frogs! Lots and lots of frogs! We typically find green frogs and bull frogs, though we have seen a Pickerel frog and a few others. So exciting and motivating to keep working to develop skills to actually be able to catch a frog!

Grab & Go Loose Parts Kits

We are a family on the go! We have 4 boys at various stages (ages 4-12) and often have waiting time or quiet time when we are out and about at church, doctor's visits, meetings, etc. We love the imagination, problem solving, and creativity from loose parts play. Having a few grab & go kits makes it easy and convenient to make sure we have some type of activity or items to play and create with when we're out.  Here are three kits we currently have in the rotation. Rotating things in and out helps keep items fresh. 

Nature and Loose Parts Valentine Books

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? My mind is going there already!

• Heart Stones--Have you ever found a heart shaped stone? So exciting to find one! The author shares a collection of 100 heart shaped stones. Great eye candy!
• See a Heart, Share a Heart--This collection of photographed found hearts will get you ready to see hearts all around you. Beautiful coffee table book!
• Monday Hearts for Madalene--This is a love story shown in hearts made of found and natural objects, such as asparagus, berries, buttons, and bungee cords. Great inspiration for making your own loose parts hearts! 
• Botanical Hearts--This coloring book combines flowers in heart designs--perfect for soothing coloring time near Valentine's Day! 

• The Day it Rained Hearts--A young girl catches hearts as they pour down outside. She uses these  hearts to make Valentines for her animal friends. 
• Snowy Valentine--A rabbit searches the forest for a perfect Valentine gift and finds his tracks make a perfect heart! She is delighted with the heart shaped gift. 
• Plant a Kiss--A young takes the phrase "plant a kiss" literally! She tends her garden and shares the love she grows with those around her. 

Have fun enjoying loose parts and nature for Valentine's Day! Read about some of our nature inspired Valentine's Day activities here.

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Robot Tinkering Kit

My boys and I had fun pulling together Loose Parts Robot Tinkering Kits for a swap at The Seasonal Classroom earlier in 2016. Each person made 3-5 Loose Parts kits (with some regulations) and another kit of the host. We each shipped them to a central spot where they were divvied out (listening to our preferences) and received different sets back.

To make our kit, we recycled some pieces from a friend (eyeballs!), went to our local ReStore shop for odds and ends, and then rounded out our kit with some wooden pieces and discarded CDs. We decided to paint the popsicle sticks, wooden block, and CDs a turquoise color to help pull the colors together a bit. At ReStore, one of our local recycle type stores, we looked for bags of hardware and other items that had many items for an inexpensive amount. We also looked for different textures and shapes. We also used the pay by the pound section that had all kinds of nuts, bolts, and other options.

As we finished our kits, we put in some corks (from my great friend!), computer keys, wooden discs, bottle caps, a laminated robot printout, and a storage box. 

Honestly, we actually separated some colorful wires from my husband as another add in and added more "stuff" from my great friend. She saw what we were doing and donated more things. She's on a mission to keep things out of the landfill!

While it was fun to pull it together, we also had fun playing with the kits! Here were some creations, adding a few other items such as a tree cookie, and a pie plate. 

 

I think the kits ended up to be a great mix of items and gave us opportunities for plenty of play! We also added in play dough, giving even more options! I liked the play dough gave us something to "stick" our items in as we made sculptures. It became temporary glue while we created. 

We also liked all the textures the various items created--this was fun to explore! 

Tips for creating your own Loose Parts Kit:

1. Think outside of the "box". What items might go together well? Are there different combinations
2. Consider your sources of items. Where can you find inexpensive items? Do you have a local recycle shop? Friends that are decluttering? What do you have on hand that you can recycle as well? Are there basics you might include?
3. Decide on a theme. Choosing the robot tinkering theme really helped us think of items specific for this rather than just loose parts in general. Obviously we love loose parts and enjoyed a more specific challenge. 
4. Consider safety. We made this for ages 5-10. There are smaller parts (fine for this age), but didn't want too many sharp points. There are a few, but they have a unique structure around them. 
5. Add on specialty items. What might round out the kit? While some thought it necessary, the robot mat became a great spot to start--I saw lots of creativity there! The wires (not pictured) were a whimsical touch that cost us nothing but a little time. The addition of the play dough, tree cookie, and other items really were nice touches. These are things we use for other projects that we could borrow while we were creating our robot tinkering sculptures. 
6. Containerize it. Having a container to put it all in is great! We can grab and go. The items are protected. Everything stays together! 
7. Add a book! If gifting something like this, consider adding a book on robots and/or loose parts/tinkering to go with the kit. Here is a popular list of Loose Parts Inspired Books that I compiled. Listed below are some robot titles to pair with it as well. 
8. Play with the kit! I think part of the fun in sharing kits like this is the time we get to spend together making memories and trying new things. Most children want our time. Taking some time out to create and explore alongside a child is priceless! 

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Board Games with a Nature Twist

While we love getting outside, we also enjoy playing games together! We have found a few nature related board games we enjoy!

1. Bingo! Wildlife Bingo is a classic game that can be played by just about any age. These games are pretty basic, with paper counters, 6 bingo cards and cards for all the animals. The animal cards have information on the back. I even learned a few things when I read these, such as mink being excellent swimmers. My kids started making connections between different animals with the deer family and also with members of the rodent family. I find the number of bingo cards limiting, as I'd most likely want to use this in a larger group, however, it works fine for my family. It is made of thin cardboard. It also includes animals from all of North America, rather than just our region. There are numerous other nature bingo topics, like birds, insects, nature, wildflowers, and freshwater fish. These could be made with your own pictures as well to make them more customized.



2. Professor Noggin series! The Professor Noggin series of games includes simple games that test your knowledge. There are two levels of play (can be different for each person playing), making it good for adults (or older kids) and kids to play together. Once again, not region specific, but we've learned about animals while playing the game. It would be another good one to make your own clues. It also has many topics--Freshwater Life, Reptiles and Amphibians, Birds, Insects, etc. I like the portability of these, too.

3. Sneaky Snacky Squirrel! We have really liked this game. The box is shaped like a tree with plastic acorns inside with a set of tweezers shaped like a squirrel. While it doesn't directly teach about squirrels, it reinforces color and counting with younger children. I found all of my boys would play it together (aged 2-10 when we first got it). See my full review here.  While it doesn't talk about squirrels, I find we have plenty of conversations about squirrels while playing. I gifted it this year and bought an extra to have for upcoming birthday parties for my 4-year-old.

4. Animal Tracks! This game can be played as Bingo, matching, or guess the tracks. The game is fine, but includes animals from farms and all over, rather than a specific place. Can you tell I like learning about animals in our region as a solid foundation for our kids? Sometimes, I will separate the cards into sets that make more sense of them to be together.

5. Hide & Seek! A friend brought this over for Christmas this week. It's really similar to playing hide and seek in the yard! I liked that there was a stream, four-leaf clovers, and other details we might find outside. My friend's family had made/played this game for years and then her son got them interested in producing it for market. We had fun playing it--we should follow it up with a real game of hide and seek! It was fun trying to stay away from each other.

6. Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game. We purchased this as an early Christmas game. It was simple to play, though took just playing the game to understand how to use all the cards. The artwork is great! The cards reinforced various plants we might find in the wild (though many transported by colonists) and how they might help various ailments. The game is cooperative in nature, which was kind of nice. I like competition, too, but enjoy working together, too. You can download a story to read as you go on the adventure. We're looking forward to playing this more! It does not go into depth about the plants, so I might put a field guide on the table while we are playing. We noticed the distinctions between the plants. This is a fun way to start thinking about plants more.

7. Nature Fluxx! We played this with my brother and sister-in-law. They always find good games. I would say older kids or adults would want to play this more. The premise of the game is pretty simple, but due to the changing nature of the game, it is always a challenge and fun to play. There are other games in the Fluxx line, though we appreciated the natural spin on this on.

8. Settlers of Catan I feel like I need to include this as it deals with humans' interactions with resources. It reminds me subtly that our resources are finite and how much we depend on them to build and expand. We need to be responsible stewards. There is no clear nature connection beyond that; however, we enjoy the strategy of playing this game.

9. GoFind It! This is a neat card based seek and find game for outside on the trail. It is handy to have in a trail bag to bring out when kids need a pick me up. Match different characteristic cards to find unique items in any spot in nature!

What nature inspired games have you enjoyed? Want to play? Just let us know! We'd love to have you over if you are local.

I have been able to find some of these at yard sales or thrift stores, making them less expensive. I watched the Wildcraft game for a couple of years before taking the plunge to buy it. I waited until I found a good sale. It's also fun to get together with other families or couples with each bringing a nature game to play! Locally, Better World Books in Goshen also has many games on display as demo games, as well as a game night. This can be a great place to try out a new game.

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Summer at Wellfield

We always enjoy visiting Wellfield Botanical Garden. During a recent summer we had a wonderful visit. The plants were abuzz with pollinators! 

They had a kids' activity to explore WORMS when we visited! We explored a compost bin. We used worms to paint with mud. 

 

We explored composting and what happens to leaf litter and animal poop. We could look at the leaf litter up close!

We explored different types of soil components, like clay, sand, etc. We also used tools like these magnifiers to explore what is there. The composter and magnifier are tools we have in our house, as well. 

We went on a scavenger hunt around the water as well. We explored so much! 

We explored plants, such as milkweed and redbuds. If you haven't smelled milkweed, you should! 

We even found an oak apple gall! 

It was fun to see all the vertical gardens as well!

These will fill in soon! 

There are spectacular detail and views throughout the gardens!