Loose Parts let Imagination Flow

Making healthy Chat

After showing an interest in role playing 'making chat' and a few of the children linking it to their own family experiences, we decided to provide the children ingredients for them to make their own chat and explore using knifes and forks to eat their food as part of school readiness. The children learnt about healthy eating and where their food comes from.

Picnic Outdoors

Following on from the children's interest in 'having a picnic' we invited the children to make their own sandwiches and picnic outdoors. The children learnt about shape, space and measure, discovering how much butter they need to spread on their bread, how to spread it etc. They socialised with friends and learnt about healthy eating. They showed pride in achieving the task of making their own sandwich and enjoyed sharing their experiences with others.

Exploring fruit and veg

We set out the weighing scales, fruits and pasta for children to explore weighing. After a while the children found great interest in pushing spaghetti into the fruit. To explore this interest further we supplied children with different fruits and vegetables, some which had a skin easy to penetrate and others which were much more challenging. The children also had access to a variety of materials such as straws, spaghetti, screws, cocktail sticks etc. The children have really enjoyed investigating. They have maintained their focus for periods of time, they showed a real 'can do' attitude and perseverance, bouncing back when challenges occurred. They shared resources and took turns. They came up with their own ideas to use additional tools to enable them to reach their goal. They showed curiosity and enjoyed the challenge, learning by trial and error.