The Theory of Loose Parts - taken from Svane Frode
The theory
of “loose parts” first proposed by architect Simon Nicholson in the
1970's has begun to influence child-play experts and the people who
design playspaces for children in a big way. Nicholson believed that it
is the 'loose parts' in our environment that will empower our
creativity. In a play, loose parts are materials that can be moved,
carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back
together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of
directions that can be used alone or combined with other
materials. Loose parts can be natural or synthetic. In a preschool
outdoor environment we can provide an array of loose parts for use in
play such as stones, stumps, sand, gravel, fabric, twigs, wood, pallets,
balls, buckets, baskets, crates, boxes, logs, stones, flowers,
rope, tyres, balls, shells and seedpods. Having "loose parts" available
in a playspace allows children to use these materials as they choose.
Often you will find that children would rather play with materials that
they can use and adapt as they please, rather than expensive pieces of
play equipment. Encouraging children to use resources as they choose can
provide a wider range of opportunities than one that is purely adult
led. Children playing with loose parts are using more creativity and
imagination and developing more skill and competence than they would
playing with most modern plastic toys. It may take a very open mind on
our part (there is often a lot of cleaning up involved as materials end
up in places you would never expect them to be) but when children
cross play materials and areas in creative ways, it is our
responsibility to support and encourage their work and ideas. Loose
Parts should – Have no defined use and playworkers must support the
children when they decide to change the shape or use of them. Be
accessible physically and stored where they can be reached by
children without having to ask the playworkers. The children should
know that they can use them whenever and however they wish. Be
regularly replenished changed and added to. ‘Loose parts’ theory is
about remembering that the best play comes from things that
allow children to play in many different ways and on many different
levels. Environments that include ‘loose parts’ are infinitely more
stimulating and engaging that static ones. The play environment needs
to promote and support imaginative play though the provision of ‘loose
parts’ in a way that doesn’t direct play and play opportunities, but
allows children to develop their own ideas and explore their world.
The Theory of Loose Parts
Architect Simon Nicholson first proposed the theory of
loose parts in
the 1970’s at a time when adventure playgrounds in England were
inspiring a rethinking the aged and static design of American
playgrounds. Nicholson believed that the loose parts in an environment
offer enormous possibilities and invite creativity unlikely in settings
with fixed elements. Environments are richer places for children’s play
with loose parts that include everything from sand and water to sticks,
plastic crates and buckets, hoses, tubing, and more. I still have my
worn mimeographed (c. 1976) copy of Nicholson's Theory of Loose Parts
on goldenrod paper in my archives. Recently the idea of loose parts has
begun to catch on with early childhood educators, play experts, and
playspace and museum designers.
… and Found Objects
I have an addition to make to Nicholson’s Theory of Loose parts.
The best loose parts are objects children find and make their own. Travelling
close to the ground, eyes wide open, and fingers outstretched, children
notice, pick up, and become proud owners of dropped, discarded, and
forgotten objects. Pebbles, sticks, plastic caps, pencil stubs, washers
and slugs, wheels from toy cars, keys, and more become their treasures.
Children store and stash them in pockets, backpacks, drawers, and
ziplock bags where they can find them, use them, and re-use them in new
ways. Just check the bottom of any child’s backpack.
When
children find objects themselves, objects adults have dismissed or
overlooked, they enjoy a feeling of ownership they seldom have about
toys or school supplies given them by parents and other adults. No doubt
they value their toy cars, doll suitcases, and paint brushes. But they
have a special relationship with their own finds. They are the bosses of
pencil stubs, empty thread spools, a rusty bolt, and seeds. They can
collect, sort, trade, forget about, and even lose their found objects.
They own them and they decide what to do with them. I imagine this is a
sweet feeling of control for someone learning to share and understand
rules of property.
An Openness to Objects
A
child’s deliberate or casual search for found objects is a true
child-directed activity, a goal often sought and less often realized.
Their curiosity about and openness to the potential of materials extends
their self-directed exploration. Sticky pine cones, a sparkly button,
and a cork bobbing in water deliver first-hand information about the
world. As children investigate an object, they wonder why it does
“that”, where it came from, and what they can do with it. They have
ideas.
Children’s questions, imaginations, and previous experiences allow them
to make connections, go further than the information given to them, and
create something new and original for them.
Attractive,
enticing, and beautiful, found objects have important attributes–fist
sized, mobile, and undefined–that allow children to invent, follow, and
finish an experience in personal and unexpected ways. An object can
become anything a child wants it to be. Chestnuts can become cooking
props, bricks in a dump truck, or boulders in an avalanche. Objects
invite conversation and inspire stories; become game pieces,
construction units, a puppet, or a precious addition to a collection of
similar objects. Found items are not only interesting to children, but
they stimulate children’s personal interests in rocks, vehicles,
stories, tools, and tinkering. Loose parts and found objects lead
children everywhere and anywhere on their ways to the future.
Time, Abundance and Variety
Children need time and opportunity to become
fluent in
materials. For most children, the more limited environments of their
daily lives, the more limited their access to loose parts, and,
especially, to found objects. Surely there are treasures to be found
between car seat cushions on the way to school, but how do they compare
to a daily 15-minute walk to and from school?
Hands-on
museums do offer loose parts as props and tools in outdoor environments,
and indoor exhibits and studio spaces. They can, nevertheless, give
loose parts and found objects a much greater presence by spreading
varied and abundant objects and their benefits across exhibits,
throughout programs, and into public areas. Museums might just use some
of the interest and imagination children bring to loose parts and found
objects in doing this. They can also follow the work of educators
from Reggio Emilia (IT), how some preschools and museums are exploring and adapting material exploration; and a few starting points below.
Grow the variety of loose parts and found objects.
Start gathering! Loose parts can be natural and manufactured and can
come from any room in the house or shelf in the garage; from the
museum’s fabrication shop or food service vendor. Increase variety by
inviting contributions from staff and board; work with local businesses
and museum sponsors. As important as quantity is, interesting qualities
(textures, shape, rigidity, color, finishes, etc.) are essential. Be
selective; consider safety. Be a participant, exploring materials
yourself and with other staff. Try a few materials in activities and
notice children’s questions and how they use them. Search with new eyes.
- Be
on the look-out for: Spoons, keys, plastic caps, driftwood, beads,
cord, paper rolls, ceramic tiles, wire, marbles, postage stamps, bark,
shells, feathers, acorns, corks, knobs, s-hooks, puzzle and game pieces,
buttons, rubber washers, ribbons, leaves, seeds, pods, etc.
Gather loose objects around a possible experience.
A possible experience is
somewhere between casually putting out a bunch of stuff and setting up a
structured, supervised activity. Being both intentionaland open to
possibilities of how children might explore, experience, use, and
combine materials is a good starting place. A child may, or may not, use
objects as you intend, but may follow another direction. Some objects
might suggest making faces, others building towers, others creating
symmetry. To shape a possible experience, imagine what a child might do
with a set of objects: arrange, sort or seriate them; build with them or
trade them; make up a story or make a game.
