As I look around me, I see busy, contented children. Jimmy and Tali are seeing how high they can stack their rocks. Eve and Noa are creating a tea party for fairies near the sandbox. Eleanor and Salli are creating homes and meals for the squirrels who frequent the rain garden. Everyone is happy and learning. We call this a “play buzz.”

When I stop and take a closer look, I see that the children are not only playing happily, but working on math and science early learning standards through play with loose parts.

Architect Simon Nicholson, who developed the theory of loose parts in 1972, believed that loose materials that could be carried, combined, rearranged, lined up or taken apart and put back together in multiple ways provided more opportunities for creative play than static or fixed materials and environments.

Loose parts are materials that can be used alone or combined with other materials (Kabel, 2010). By creating opportunities to introduce math and science concepts—along with observations, predictions and data collection through loose-part play—we allow our students to experiment and work their way through their STEM explorations.

In outdoor classrooms or family backyards, educators and parents are discovering the beauty of loose parts in children’s learning and play experiences. The environment IS our curriculum. When we add natural elements to play areas, we create STEM-rich environments with myriad opportunities to solve problems in deep and complex ways.

As more and more classrooms and families return to the outdoors, simply giving our children the gift of time will facilitate STEM learning. This type of play comes easily to young children and can be far more productive than the worksheets, number cards and memorization activities that may be too advanced for your earliest learners.

We like to think of loose parts as acorns, bark, dirt, fabric, feathers, flower petals, leaves, moss, pebbles, pinecones, pine needles, rocks, sand, seeds, shells, sticks and whatever else may be native to your region.

We rarely take walks without bringing home all kinds of loose-part “treasures.”

Use what you have. If your loose parts are small and your early learners carry them around in containers to create “things” with, they are still playing with loose parts!

Take advantage of what you have around you and use these loose parts to set up a STEM-rich environment. We also use blocks, people, animals and other manipulatives. Loose parts can range from dramatic play props to toy cars to pots, pans and pouring devices. If your environment doesn’t already contain a collection of loose parts, I strongly suggest that you add them. Then stand back and observe your early learners to see how their play is transformed!

The beauty of loose parts is that they can be moved, which gives children the power to create new learning adventures every day. When materials are displayed in visually pleasing ways, this sends a message that you respect the materials and the creativity that they inspire.

Storage is another important piece of the loose-parts puzzle. A well-organized storage system imparts a sense of order and helps the children access the parts more easily. Children need to know where the loose parts are stored to be able to design their play experience—and to put their materials away when their project has been completed.

Outdoors, we use galvanized buckets, plant containers, crates or other containers for loose-parts storage. Use your imagination. I can tell you from practice that the happier the container makes you, the more relaxed you will be with loose parts.

Your outdoor storage will be more successful if you carefully determine the placement of your storage before you begin. If you move the storage every day, it will cause confusion.

Also, I know that some people think that more is better with regard to loose parts. But loose parts encourage divergent thinking (a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring a variety of potential solutions). So less is actually more.

Also, be aware that your buckets and baskets will likely get dumped out and used as loose parts instead of storage containers.

That’s a struggle for me. Usually, it means that I need more containers for the children to use in their loose-parts play. I recently added colanders for outdoor loose-parts storage. This has been a game-changer. Rain and snow drip through the holes, allowing the loose parts to drain and dry quickly. Look for them at your local resale shop or scout some out at garage sales to start your collection. They are truly the ideal container for outdoor storage.

Indoors, I try to keep our natural loose-part materials in wood bowls or sturdy baskets that are soothing to the eye and create a sense of order and tranquility.

STEM is all about discovery and exploring the world around us. When our early learners ask questions or wonder how or why something works, they are building a STEM knowledge base. So create an environment rich in loose parts and let the learning begin!

Document the children’s progress as they work through their theories, predictions and observations. You will witness design thinking, cause-and-effect epiphanies and collaboration between children like never before!

Children had the opportunity to compare pictures of their unit block structures with their original and redesigned sketches. Children were able to observe and note any similarities and differences in their work. They were also able to recognize and recall their work by explaining their building process and talking about any difficulties that they had encountered and how they problem solved.

Some of these difficulties included not having enough square blocks to build the walls of a house, so rectangles were used instead. Another problem was not being able to balance specific blocks to build a pitched roof, so less blocks were used and the placement was modified to make it work. This was an intentional cognitively-focused reflection to set up children for the next step which was very open-ended in how a building is constructed.

For this next step, children had the opportunity to create their re-designed building using mixed media (sticks, clay, and wire). Children had never worked with these materials before so we knew that some problems were going to occur, though they were excited to work with these materials.

Since clay is very dense and heavy children started noticing that their structures were not staying in place. They would lean over, fall or simply not stick to the other materials as children had hoped. Another problem would be trying to bend the wire into something specific. The wire wasn’t able to give them sharp lines or edges and so windows were a little rounded.

There was a lot of teacher guidance, questioning, reasoning and problem solving during this process. Even though children would get frustrated, they really wanted to keep building and put their structure together. If they needed help, they simply asked and I would help. If they didn’t, I just sat back and watched them build.

The last step in our project was to present to the class. This was relatively new because children were not used to “presenting” to the class. They would sometimes talk about their work or show and tell their journals, but it wasn’t a regular thing yet. Children were shy presenting their work, but with a little help from the teacher, they were able to explain to the class how they put their projects together. They were able to talk about the problems they encountered and how they fixed them. They were able to use descriptive math language to talk about their buildings relating to spatial awareness, shapes, quantity and size.

These children started off with little math language and by the end of the project they were including some kind of math vocabulary in each sentence they used to talk about their project. For example: “I put my block here” or “it goes there” to “This small triangle is going on top of the square and next to the bigger rectangle”.

I was very proud and impressed with the children and their growth. They did not give up and were motivated to participate in as many of the steps as possible. Of course, there were moments and parts of the project where some things were too complex for some students. For example, in step nine where children were building with mixed media, one child had difficulty building “up” in a three dimensional way. His project was flat and it almost looked like a blue print of a building instead of an actual structure.

After giving clues, asking leading questions and watching the child start his project over a couple of times and still build in a “blue print” manner, I let him be and he presented his structure as it was. In his mind that’s what a building looked like and that was ok because it was his project and I did not want to interfere with his motivation to finish his project.

This project took a lot of time and work to put together and I was grateful for the support that I received to make it happen. I liked the way that it was organized because each step flowed into the next. The one thing that I would change for the next project is to make sure children have had the opportunity to work with all the materials before using them in a project so they are aware of their characteristics and know how to work with them. I’d also take pictures of their prior step with me to help with recalling information or to use to present to the class so children can get use to “presenting” aspect of the project.

One thing that definitely shined was the mutual respect for the project that helped create a bigger sense of community. Children felt comfortable being themselves and sharing their thoughts and ideas. Children interested in what they were doing and saw math concepts in the world around them. Math became part of a project, part of children’s interest and became the beginning of my own math appreciation. Because of this project, I look forward to incorporating math into all activities and projects. I also learned to trust children and give them credit to be able to participate and finish a long term project.

After having experienced the buildings in these forms, we believed children were ready to design their own building. Before this step there were many conversations and read alouds that examined what a building needed in order to function such as walls, floors, windows, doors, roof, stairs, plumbing, etc.

Children had the opportunity to design/draw their own building using graphite pencils and discuss with the teacher the details of their building. We chose graphite pencils because we wanted the children to be able to show as much detail in their sketch using the pencils with different graphite leads.These different graphite leads meant different shades and thickness of lines were produced and children were able to use different pencils for different purposes.  Children met one on one with the teacher before to discuss what they wanted their building to look like, during to describe what they were drawing and to answer any questions that the children may have, and after to review the design and give children another opportunity to talk about their building before actually building.

Once children were done with their design, they went to the block area to create their building with unit blocks. Children took their sketch with them and used it as a guide to construct their building. I was able to quickly see their vision come to life and it was great to see how motivated the children were to build and also talk about their building. This step gave the children the opportunity to design something using their previous knowledge of what a building is and applying it to their sketch and structure. Children’s structures varied in sizes and shapes.

Math language started flowing naturally and in part of conversations. Children were talking about the quantity of blocks they used to represent specific features in their buildings and specific sizes such as how long, short, tall and wide some blocks needed to be in order to fit in their building or to support specific parts of the building like the roof or placement of windows. They addressed how they were to get in the building and showed an understanding of symmetry and spatial awareness when they wanted a specific block to work, but couldn’t so they had to place it in a different spot to make sure their structure was balanced. They were solving problems involving math!

Once children were done building with the unit blocks, they were asked to draw what they had represented with the unit blocks and we called this step a building re-design. This new sketch was drawn with new ideas based on what they had learned in the previous steps. This new sketch was very similar to their original design, but it was also different in the sense that it was a lot clearer. Lines were crisper, sharper and their ideas were much more obvious in this second sketch.

Children were working very hard and were very eager to continue in the building project, especially now that they were creating something new and the design was theirs and belonged to nobody else. In the last blog, I will talk about the final steps and the reflection process that happened both within the students and teachers. I will include what worked well and what could’ve been changed and how this project changed the way I looked at math in my classroom for the better!

or·der

ˈôrdər/

noun:

1. the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method
2. an authoritative command, direction or instruction

 verb:

1. to put into a methodical, systematic arrangement
2. to bring about order

One of the first learning experiences I recall as a student teacher in a Boston Public School pre-k was on the subject of classroom design and organization. Our room was especially small and we shared it with 16 three and four-year olds. “Order” was not only a math concept we wanted to explore with the children, but also a necessity in terms of keeping the materials organized for both children and teachers working together in that space on a daily basis.

The head teacher had begun the school year by sorting, according to habitat, all of the plastic animals used for imaginative play: oceans, jungle, forest, etc. Taped to the open bin in which they were stored (on shelves at the child’s height) was a photo of a few of those animals together with the written word of its habitat. Categorizing helped the children identify where both to find the items s/he was seeking and also return the items at clean-up. This is a system I have used not only in my classrooms, but also to an extent in my home. Using uniform, clear boxes with lids (so they can be stacked if needed) for the storage of ALL playthings and classroom supplies is ideal. This way, everyone can see what is inside. On the container you can adhere the laminated photograph. Alternatively, I’ve used wide packing tape over the entire width and length of the photo, which works beautifully.

The blocks area was another place in need of an organization system so the many various shapes (½ unit, unit, double unit, quad unit, pillar, ½ circle, ¼ circle, pillar, roman arch, triangle, arch, circle curve, crossing, y-switch, elliptical curve) could be quickly found and put away with relative ease. We cut out from colored contact paper a template of each shape and adhered them on the area of the shelves where children would stack the matching blocks.

Having a system in place for children’s personal belongings also helps everyone keep track of items. Individual and personalized hooks and/or cubbies where children hang their backpacks and jackets on a daily basis is preferred so that children can come to expect where to find their items from home. We alphabetized the names along the row of hooks, and below each name was a different color swatch. The color swatch (used from hardware store paint swatches) helped children who were not yet identifying their names, or first letter of their name, to recognize their hook.

Sorting classroom items by attribute (markers/pencils/crayons; red/orange/yellow; cars/trains/trucks) is an early math concept which is relevant to a child’s world. Identifying and naming shapes increases match vocabulary. To take it a little further, managing to identify attributes of objects, and then placing them where they belong, empowers kids to help maintain and respect their environment, keeps items organized for the community and is visually calming.