Loose Parts
Why do we use loose parts?
Loose parts are a significant segment of our ethos at Inspirations Nurseries. Before moving away from conventional toys, we did a lot of research into the benefits of using loose parts. Several education pedagogies use loose parts. Reggio Emilia and loose parts complement each other well; we use both at Inspirations. Both philosophies support open ended play using natural resources, imagination, and creativity. When children are given opportunities to engage in free play with little adult direction, they are able to explore freely with creativity and expression, because there are no limitations or expectations.
What are Loose Parts?
Loose parts are open ended materials that can be moved around, designed, and redesigned. They create opportunities to use our imaginations and discover new ideas. Conventional toys are fixed for the one purpose they were made for, whereas loose parts are open ended and can be used for a variety of things. A plastic car can only be a car. A stick could be a magic wand or a person or you could use a number of them to make a house… the possibilities are endless. Ask any parent how long their children will play with the cardboard box a toy comes in on their birthdays. Loose parts can be found anywhere. How many of us remember going to the beach and collecting shells and stones and making patterns with them? You can find loose parts in the house, in the garden or on a walk. Loose parts include both manufactured and natural resources. These can include stones, pinecones, rings, balls, blocks, boxes, leaves and even nuts and bolts.
Endless Possibilities
For outdoor play, we provide a variety of large loose parts such as tyres of different sizes, milk crates, planks of wood, cable reels etc. In our baby rooms, we use a variety of loose parts to support schemas; we use things like curtain rings to hang on mug trees, balls to post through holes, tyres to encourage rolling. Toddlers can then use slightly smaller loose parts such as pebbles to create patterns and smaller wood slices for counting. Preschool are able to use more intricate loose parts such as beads, small tiles and items they find on forest school.
The founder of the Reggio Emilia Philosophy said...
“Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their hands, their eyes and their ears, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours”.
-Kayleigh
See loose parts in action in our Pre-School room here- https://youtu.be/Nngfh6Uj-yw
All photos from Inspirations Nursery
Thinking Outside The Box
'Colour is a power that directly influences the soul'- Wasily Kandinsky
At Inspirations, children always think outside the box. Just the other day when a group of preschoolers were making scented playdough during their art session, a child exclaimed; “Smells are like things you can smell but you smell them and you see it in your eyes”. When another added that smells can be seen, lovely smells as well as bad smells.
As a Senior Educator I am required to make sure that the preschool provision fits relevant standards set and recommended by Ofsted, Early Years Foundation Stage, Health and Safety regulations, Safeguarding and Child Protection, UNCRC, Children Acts etc. I have forms and tick lists for absolutely everything. My life has become a policy and a procedure easily entered into a Microsoft Spreadsheet, whereas a child’s view of life is magnificent, limitless and without bounderies. And I am not referring to imagination. The child from the art session was not using imagination when linking smells to vision, she was critically evaluating; using the skill needed for graduate-level research.
So often, the education systems forgets that children are pools of limitless knowledge that can not be defined by regulations, tick lists and spreadsheets. This made me reflect, if smells can be seen, can our feelings be defined by something other than smiley and sad faces; the traditional representation of feelings and emotions in a typical nursery setting? Why do we tend to simplify everything in order for children to gain understanding if the understanding is already there? Maybe it’s actually us, the practitioners that need to open their eyes to smells..
Therefore, I’ve decided to rebel against the traditional thinking and broaden our own understanding of life through the eyes of three and four year olds. I am looking forward to exploring the spectrum of feelings and thoughts through the use of colours. I believe, it was the founder of abstract art forms, Wassily Kandinsky who said that colour is a power that directly influences the soul, lets see if he is right.
Michaela- Pre-School Room Leader
'If we didn't have bees we wouldn't have honey'
'They use their legs to clean themselves, just like Tinkerbell'
Saturday 7th July
We had a really wonderful day down at Inspirations on Saturday for the Horsforth Walk of Art and to celebrate our name change. Art, music, sunshine and food were the perfect ingredients to a perfect day…. enjoy the photos and thank you to all who helped out and came along. If you were lucky enough to get a packet of seeds from us don’t forget to send us your pictures when they start growing.
Walk of Art
Join us on Saturday 7th July for our opening day with live music from the amazing Biscuit Head and the Biscuit Badgers at 2.30pm.
Expect a clay workshop, a needle felted display, food and drink, campfire with marshmallow toasting and a freebie for the first 100 families to come.
Join us in the sunshine for a day of art and music.