Some adults refer to baskets as Mess-Delivery-Devices, and shun their inclusion in play spaces. That’s understandable, because baskets are tools that support mess-making. It’s almost as if they were designed to make it easy to transport things from point A to point B on the other side of the room. Some shun them for this reason, but here at Playvolution HQ love them as loose parts precisely because they help kids move things about.

And it appears kids have been using them for this purpose for a long time, as this old-time postcard depicting children harvesting a dinosaur egg proves.

Baskets are a technology–a tool designed to simplify a task–so play with them is a chance for STEM learning. Plus, kids getting into them is adorable for some reason. Not as cute as a child with a kitten in a basket, but cute.

Only one photo in this post shows a real-life version of how basket play in most early learning settings looks. Know which one I’m talking about? Of course, you do. The on with toys dumped all over the place–far from where they belong. That’s the reality that comes with baskets as loose parts. But add some baskets anyway because with that mess comes lots of conversation, heavy work, planning, physical activity, social interaction, and other learning. It’s worth the mess.

Baskets At Play

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