Loose Parts

We have been using a lot of natural resources for children to explore and lead their play with to see what they can create. Loose parts are an open ended resource to allow children's imaginations to run wild.

Loose Parts Play Theory was first mooted by an architect, Simon Nicholson, in the
1970s. He proposed that the loose parts in our environment empowered creativity
and accordingly that, if we want children to be inventive and creative, they should be
offered a variety of material which can be moved, carried, combined, stacked, lined
up, redesigned, taken apart and put back together with no directions or specific way
of playing with them.
Previous generations would have engaged in this type of play quite naturally. Toys were limited and children were able to wander and play within the environment comparatively free from
adult restrictions and interruptions. Children today spend a lot more time indoors and are not able to roam as freely in fields, woods and parks. Adults therefore need to provide equivalent play opportunities for young children of all ages.