ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Ms. Francesca Theuma -Infant Curriculum Coordinator
Loose Parts
A familiar term used in our Early Years classrooms is ’loose parts’. Some might wonder, what does this mean? Loose parts in early childhood education settings refer to beautiful objects and materials (recycled or natural) that the children can move, manipulate, control and change while they play. These could include cardboard boxes, stones, pinecones, cork, sticks, toilet paper rolls and many other things. However, these materials do not come with a specific set of directions.
How are loose parts incorporated in our curriculum?
The philosophy of the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC) is designed around a child-centred approach, where the children are free to express their own ideas, especially during play. These same ideas are intertwined with the teachers’ planning. IEYC gives importance to a balance between teacher-scaffolded and child initiated learning.
In Math, children can acquire their first math skills and numerical concepts when they manipulate small loose parts. They can use these objects to: sort, classify, count, combine and learn one-to-one correspondence. Teachers gain the opportunity to hear the children counting whilst they play, providing evidence of their learning, as well as progress. This, in turn, serves as an informal assessment. With language and literacy, loose parts can help promote speech and vocabulary development.
Kindergarten – a set up for dinosaurs created during free play. At that time children were learning about communities.
Play Potential
Early years learning should be motivating and engaging, and that’s why activities using loose parts fit well with the curriculum, ensuring children are free to create what they want. For example, if the children are doing the unit “This is Me,” they are able to create a self-portrait using different loose parts.
When they are learning about different houses around the world, they are given the opportunity to create houses from different recycled materials.