What can you spy beneath a pile of bark?
Imaginature has incorporated the concept of ‘loose parts play’ – salvaged items (natural or synthetic) that can be used by students for open-ended, creative play. This loose parts play complements the loose parts play that has been incorporated into the kindy and pre-primary outdoor learning.
While traditional toys are items that have limited flexibility and play value, loose parts are objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change within their play. With endless possibilities, they provide for a high level of creativity and develop children’s imagination.
Here is a link to a video on loose parts play.
Loose parts can be found objects, scrap material from industry, junk from home, objects discovered in nature, or ambiguous items that children may use for purposes other than that for which they were intended.
Our loose parts in Imaginature include wheels, tyres, tubing, rope, fabric, shade cloth, PVC pipes, cable spools, milk crates, plastic pallets, plastic guttering and drains, timber, logs, branches, and rocks.
The school and the gardening committee collect second hand materials for loose parts play in Imaginature. It is important to note that what may make a good loose part in the kindy/pre-primary, may not make a good loose part in Imaginature.
What makes a good loose part in Imaginature
Examples of materials that make good loose parts in Imaginature include:
- lengths of fabric, curtains or shade cloth
- rope
- inner tubes from bike/wheels
- milk crates
- heavy duty plastic pallets
- wheels (without broken spokes)
- sturdy branches suitable for cubby making
- timber steppers
- metal pots and pans
- bucket seats
- unbroken chair frames
- old wheelbarrows
What doesn’t make a good loose part in Imaginature
Experience has shown that the following items are not appropriate loose parts for Imaginature:
- lengths of PVC pipe unless a very wide diameter (narrow diameter pipes are easily broken )
- computer keyboards (easily broken and the keys become litter)
- cheap and/or brittle plastic items that can be easily broken and so become a hazard or litter
- machinery/innards of machines (metal objects with sharp edges tend to rust and become a hazard)
- ironing boards
What to do if you have something to donate for loose parts play
Please contact one of the following before bringing any loose parts material to the school:
- school administration
- Eleanor – here or 0478 635 750
- Alex – here or 0458 749 746
- Liz – here or 0488 330 016