Children’s experiences with loose parts are richer and more diverse when adults hone what we’ll call a loose parts mindset and create play spaces that holistically embrace Simon Nicholson’s theory of loose parts. Too often, adults approach loose parts play in ways that curtail children’s exploration, innovation, and creativity. As an alternative, this post offers 3 tips for building a loose parts mindset that fully embraces Nicholson’s vision of loose parts.

The theory of loose parts says, quite simply, the following: ‘In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kinds of variables in it.’

Simon Nicholson, The Theory Of Loose Parts

More Than Objects

Expanding your definition of loose parts expands your loose parts mindset.

Those environmental variables Nicholson references in the above quote are more than just inanimate physical objects like stones, tires, and ladles. Loose parts can be concepts, physical phenomena, smells, words, music, living things, and more. For example, Gravity, Kittens, Rhymes, and Rhythms are all loose parts. You expand your loose parts mindset by supporting children’s engagement with, and exploration of these non-physical variables with which they can interact.

Explorations of these non-physical loose parts often necessitates inanimate physical objects. For example, say you want to help kids notice and interact with the wind. To do so, you may enhance your outdoor play space with objects that help draw attention to the movement of air: windchimes, a weathervane, a windsock, streamers, and lightweight objects like feathers, shredded paper, and dried leaves.

Embracing this broad definition of loose parts can profoundly impact how you set up and manage your play environment. For example, understanding that children often see other people as loose parts, variables with which they can interact, may influence your approach to behavior management and social-emotional learning. Whether it’s eighteen-month-old Rishi dumping out containers of toys with a devilish grin or three-year-old Tobias defiantly refusing to share the green paint, children’s behavior is often more about conducting experiments than it is about being bad.

There is evidence that all children love to interact with variables, such as materials and shapes, smells and other physical phenomena, such as electricity, magnetism, and gravity; media such as gases and fluids; sounds, music, and motion; chemical interactions, cooking and fire; and other people, and animals, plants, words, concepts and ideas. With all these things all children love to play, experiment, discover and invent and have fun.

Simon Nicholson, The Theory Of Loose Parts

More Than An Area

Making loose parts an all-the-time thing instead of a sometimes thing enhances your loose parts mindset.

Early learning settings frequently attempt to set up a specific area dedicated to loose parts or offer an occasional loose parts activity. This approach is better than nothing, but it limits children’s access to and time with loose parts. Instead, consider embracing the concept of loose parts across the entire play space.

As Nicholson says, loose parts are simply variables with which people can interact. With that definition in mind, it’s a bit easier to expand your loose parts mindset and provide children with more variables in all areas of your program throughout the day. One way to do this is to seek out ways to enhance your block area, art area, literacy area, dramatic play space, outdoor play space, and every other corner of the environment with interesting variables.

For example, transitioning from a craptivity focused approach to arts and crafts to a process focused approach full of self-directed creation and interesting odds-and-ends makes for a richer and more learning-rich environment.

More Than You Anticipate

Trusting children to engage with loose parts on their terms enhances your loose parts mindset.

Too much adult planning, directing, preparing, and interfering make loose parts less loose. Adults should stop bringing their agendas to children’s play. Creativity, inventiveness, and the possibility of discovery are limited when adults coax children to use loose parts in predetermined ways.

It is more effective to abandon predetermined outcomes and preplanned learning goals and trust children to lead their exploration and learning. Doing so results in more learning and discovery than you could have planned for or anticipated. The images below link to examples of kids leading their learning with loose parts.

It can be hard to hand over control and power, trusting that learning will happen if you don’t plan for it. It helps to remember that children are wired to learn, that play is an evolutionary learning strategy, and that children’s interests, knowledge, and curiosity drive their play and exploration.

Loose Parts Mindset Wrap Up

Seeing loose parts as more than inanimate physical objects, seeking ways to expand their availability throughout your entire learning environment, and trusting kids to lead their own learning are 3 ways to expand your loose parts mindset and invite more learning–and fun–into your play environment.

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