“Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, re-designed, lined up, taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. Children involve themselves in concrete experiences using loose parts, which lead to explorations that occur naturally. There is no set of specific directions for materials that are considered loose parts. The child is the direction.”¹
Nature is full of loose parts. And the loose parts that are available in nature have an innate appeal to children. Be it sticks, rocks, leaves, or bits of bark, nature offers an abundance of engaging (and free!) "toys" for children to manipulate and explore.
When we talk about children involving themselves in "concrete experiences" using loose parts, which lead to natural and intrinsic "explorations" I can think of nothing better than to give an example of exactly what this might look like.
There are several short trees that line the periphery of our neighborhood public park. Early this spring, my daughter and I were exploring the barren ground around the trees, searching for life. (So much about this alone... how my daughter, and many other children that come to the park, prefer to play around the trees than on the playground most days...but that's for another time.) My daughter soon discovered some small, deep crimson berries scattered about the ground under the trees. She listened intently as we talked about the berries. How they weren't good for people to eat, but maybe something else might like to eat them.
"Maybe birds!" she offered.
And from the "concrete experience" of discovering the berries, the "exploration" began. My daughter began walking around collecting berries, and placing them on the pavement just outside of the grassy area where the trees were growing. She did this several times. I could see she had a plan, so I simply said, "I see you're putting all the berries on the sidewalk".
"For the birds. So they can find them."
"What a kind idea! I bet the berries will be easier for the birds to see if they are out here instead of hidden in the grass! I wonder how a bird eats a berry like this."
She gets back to work, collecting berries and placing them out on the pavement. Often, she would bring berries to me that did not pass inspection, as she did this I noticed that she was making some pretty detailed observations of these little berries.
"This one's smushed," she says as she brought me the reject, discarding it in my open hand and returning to her project.
"It has wrinkles," she declares, holding up the puckered little berry for my own inspection. I commented that it might be a little old. She seemed content with my opinion and placed it on the concrete with the others.
Shortly thereafter, I noticed she had started pulling off the stems of the berries, and was placing the now stem-less berries on the pavement. This process often took much effort and concentration.
"Why are you pulling the stems out of the berries?" I asked.
"They no eat them," she replied.
"You mean the birds won't eat the stems?"
"Yeah."
"That's true, they probably won't."
"They no have fingers."
My heart skipped a happy, proud-mommy beat. "You're right! Birds don't have fingers!" And I returned to my original question (the one I posed twenty minutes earlier, and figured she had ignored). "I wonder how the birds eat the berries."
"Maybe with their beak," she remarked.
"Yeah, maybe with their beaks! How thoughtful of you to take out the stem to make it easier for the birds to eat these little berries!"
I don't know if birds actually eat these kinds of berries. But I do know that this "concrete experience" interacting with natural loose parts at the playground opened up a rich "exploration" into the differences between the berries themselves (smushed, wrinkled) and some serious thought into how birds go about finding and eating their food.
We continue to visit this spot every time we go to the park, and the exploration continues.
True food for thought.
¹From Penn Sate Extension’s Youth and Family series: http://extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare