Through the Eyes of the Educator...

As I stepped into my role in a Reggio environment I found myself hesitant with the use of loose parts in our toddler program. That quickly changed when I gave into the provocations and observed the children lose themselves in the creativity that is loose parts.

I will NEVER forget my first “aha moment” with loose parts. I used driftwood, small bells, sea glass, corks, mason jar lids, coloured gems and silicone scrub pads for our this particular morning. I had two girls approach the provocation; I observed one of the girls quickly reach for the coloured gems. She would take one colour gem at a time as she created a line. Once she ran out of gems, she would put them all back and restart the process. She was so delicate with the gems and the placement of the gems were specific in form. She didn’t explore any other materials provided throughout her play. The other child’s play was the complete opposite. She took out every item and laid them out in a chaotic manner. She was rough and messy throughout her play. She was layering items, she was banging pieces to together examining the different sounds she was creating, she would hold pieces in her hands exploring the different textures. As I sat back and observed them play, I realized how this experience showed their personalities. Over time as I got to know these two children, I learned one child was very rigid; she liked things done in a particular way, she was gentle and she did not like things unorganized. Oppose to other child who embraces the chaos, loves getting messy, loves the unpredictable and truly lives in the moment. I believe it’s the freedom of imagination that loose parts provides our children that makes them our most valuable material in our classroom.

Ashley McDowell

March 2019