Creating with natural loose parts
There is just something special about playing with natural loose parts. The roughness of bark, the smoothness of leaves, the soft delicate petals and the coldness of stones. It’s just ever so special! But if you have never had the experience of being creative using loose parts from nature, then we highly recommend that you give it a go. Let’s explain why it is an exciting venture to go on.
There are so many opportunities to use loose parts. One way is to add them to toys such as cars and animals. Often by adding these, children are stimulated and inspired in their play because it’s something different. The beauty of loose parts is that they can easily be moved around. They can be added to a play adventure which has the potential to change the way the play story unfolds. Often this keeps play going for longer. They also provide interesting and different experiences when added to the art and craft corners too. While we love adding natural loose parts to play with other toys and craft areas, there is another side to using loose parts that we enjoy very much.
Using natural resources as loose parts inspires different ideas and different thinking. Watch our Outdoor Loose Parts video that shows a child’s creativity using a collection of treasures from the garden.
Our creative “expert” in the video had so many ideas on the day. It was difficult to choose which ones to show in the video! She confidently created using the collection of natural resources that she helped to put together. It was wonderful to observe how deep in thought she was as she tried different ideas. When she wasn’t satisfied with her ideas, she made changes that worked better. Adding the chalk was a great idea of hers. She used it to enhance her work. Streaks of white were added to the stones and wood for the finishing touches and it was obvious that our creator was very pleased with what it added to her work.
Once her work was completed, she let us know. She understood that we preserved her creations by taking videos and photos. She had a good understanding that this was necessary so that the loose parts could be used for another creation that she or another child could make. Wonderful turn taking is practised with loose parts when this happens! Some children might take a bit of time to “trust” the “preserving process” of taking videos and photos of their work but they will get there if this is done often enough.
Our creative expert loved using nature loose parts so much, she created many more exciting ideas which you can see featured in the video below. Click the image to play the video.
Finally, the benefits of creating with natural loose parts are many. Here are a few examples:
Fine motor skills are developed with breaking sticks and leaves into pieces.
Eye-hand coordination is used to pick up and put resources in specific places.
Decisions are made by the creator.
Different ideas are explored through trial and error.
Taking risks is a must to find out what works best.
Spatial awareness, textures and form are explored.
Think about when you have made something that you think is great. You feel confident, proud and you feel like you have achieved something great. Children feel the same when they are given opportunities to explore and express their ideas and feelings by creating something. We believe that playing with loose parts from nature creates experiences that help to form connections and knowledge about the natural world.
We encourage you to explore your outdoors. Get to know what is available to use. Make collections and encourage your child to become a creative thinker. Make time for the process of creations to evolve. AND if you have never played with natural loose parts before, we strongly encourage you to get involved and feel what it is really like!
