Materials that can be moved around, taken apart and put back together in different ways are called Loose Parts. Invitations to play that incorporate loose parts have no specific set of directions or one ‘right’ way…they are open ended and can be used alone or combined with other materials. Play incorporating Loose Parts supports problem solving, creative thinking and often a sense of wonder for children.
NLC loves loose parts!
“Children do not live – as many still believe – in a mythical and pre-intellectual dimension, but they are capable of constructing thoughts and reflections because knowledge is with them, right from birth, in the heart of life itself. Children, above all when together with other children, are inventors, “safecrackers”, and re-builders of theories and behaviours that elude any presumptuousness or predictability of methods. Children do not wait for our permission to think. Indeed, children are bursting with ideas that are always impatient to escape through language (and we say a hundred languages) to connect and communicate with the things of the world.” - Loris Malaguzzi
