How can toddlers form that important relationship with loose parts?

Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their hands, their eyes and their ears, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours

Loris Malaguzzi (Reggio Children) Reggio Emilia Italy

This quote resonated with me as part of our 100 loose parts for toddlers project. The infinite resource of toddler’s hands is highlighted when children play with loose parts. How do their hand’s move and manipulate materials with different types of loose parts. Are children confident or hesitant with different materials?

Toddlers use loos parts to research and create their thinking. This important piece of information was part of our discussions at a session with thinkined.com from Vaughan Ontario. Children either research with their hands to discover the nuances of a loose part or they create with the loose parts. This is new and so interesting as we observe our toddler’s play with loose parts.

How does the loose part lend itself to researching the material or creating with the material?

Loose parts allow toddlers to invent, create and experiment with their hands. It is freedom to choose what materials willbecome. It is not the educator’s task to figure out how children will use a particular loose part. It is our job to provide them with many different opportunities. These opportunities need to be important and interesting, not just a plain simple pompom in many different colours.

As we think deeply about our research project, in the Toddler room at The Sunflower School (www.thesunflowerschool.ca) , we need to slow down and really see how children play with our offerings of loose parts.

I believe in loose parts as the foundation of our classrooms as an educator and researcher because it allows toddlers to think confidentially and creatively in their play. Toys have one outcome and purpose so it is limiting for the mind of a toddler. This is why toys get damaged and broken; children need the toys to do many different things based on what they are thinking. Loose parts lend themselves to the many different ways toddlers will play and think.

Our guiding research question is “How can a toddler’s thinking be given a rich opportunity to form a relationship with Loose parts?”which helps us to slow down and really think about our toddlers play with loose parts and the materials we are collecting. We are thinking deeply about our collection.

What does relationship mean: from Webster’s dictionary “the way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected or state of being connected”

How are toddlers connected to these materials?

What is the relationship between the child and the loose parts? How does memory affect a loose part for a child?

We will explore this relationship through our research over the next few months.

Heather Jackson

March 2019