The Super Power of Loose Parts: Loose Parts Play in School

By Dan Rees-Jones

Within the first week or so of new job at Children’s Scrapstore as a Play Development Officer, I found myself delivering training in a small room to six lunchtime staff about play and playwork and what they could expect to see when their new Scrapstore PlayPod * opening in a few weeks.  I was confident in talking about play and playwork, but my main problem was that I really hadn’t got a clue about what they could expect to see!

It’s not that I was “loose parts shy”.  I am no stranger to Scrapstore and like many other play professionals I was one of those many folk that not only forgot my membership card every time but also relied heavily on Scrapstore for inspiration and valuable resources that supported and extended various different play sessions.... fondly remembering a play ranger session where we played cricket with a mannequin arm with much amusement!

The day before “The Opening” after delivering a training session, I thought I would be a good idea to do an observation of the lunchtime to gauge how introducing hundreds of loose parts into the environment might work… After approximately 15 seconds of standing on the playground a girl and boy approached me and asked me what I was doing….. They then announced that it was probably best for them to give me a guided tour of their playground and playing field.  As we all moved around the space they pointed out what features they enjoyed and the types of games they liked to play. They seemed really excited about their new roles as tour guides, which they took very seriously and in the knowledge that they had the complete attention of the ‘new person in our playground’.  I felt quite honoured that they were giving up their free time to show me their playground and enjoyed the attention I was receiving.  As the tour progressed I was also invited to play various different types games they liked playing and asked if I knew any games…. And so on and so on…..then the whistle went and that was the end of playtime.  Observation fail!

On the opening day, I had a small briefing with the lunchtime staff, where I tried to inspire confidence and excitement within the team… which was difficult in the circumstances… but I think it went well and everyone seemed excited about the prospect.  Just before the children arrived on the playground we removed all the large loose parts from the Scrapstore PlayPod leaving the floor clear so children could run into the structure.  Not knowing what was about to happen created some a range of feelings for me at this point.. an unusual mixture of giddy excitement, dread of something going wrong leading to anticipation/nervousness of being the one responsible or the notion of being dramatically under whelmed.

I heard the children before I saw them then in what seemed like a stampede about 100 children ran past me with obvious excitement, shouting and screaming. Some children appeared to be clutching almost waving pieces of paper, which I later learned were design plans for the structures they wanted to build!  The effect for the first few minutes was quite mesmerising, almost unbelievable… More and more children kept streaming from the lunch hall and then proceeded to literally clear every item of “scrap” out of the structure onto the field with the adults, (myself included)… just stood still almost rooted to the spot watching in amazement. Quite redundant.

To the observer it looked like 210 children had just unwrapped their presents on Christmas Day in the playground, a powerful assault on the senses….lots of bright colours, movement in every direction and plenty more noise.  It was chaotic to observe in the first instance.  Once the ‘Great Scrap Rush’ subsided the play morphed into a hive of frenzied building activity.  Large and small groups of children were making dens, offices, hammocks and swings building off anything and everything available to them. There was small groups combating with cardboard tubes, others pulling children around in crates and banging drums or making as much noise with scrap as possible.  As all of this unfolded I started to relax and then found myself smiling… The children weren’t enjoying this, they were loving it, which was an enjoyable spectacle to observe.

The lunch time was over as quick as it started. I wasn’t sure how all the stuff was going to fit back inside the box…but the children collaborated brilliantly.  As the playground became clean and silent again I had an epiphany:

Maybe I am a loose part?

Just yesterday, I had been the new and exciting loose part/person, bringing novelty and interest into the environment.

Today not one child spoke to me or even seemed to acknowledge me being there.. It was like I had become invisible or hidden from sight.  Because of the loose parts I had become redundant to the children’s play needs. 

What if I am a loose part?

Whether I am a loose part or not… what this experience demonstrated to me was the super powers loose parts possess.  They are an amazing enabler in play and offer potential to build, create, transform, destroy, build resilience, learn about, stimulate imagination, support group collaboration and build friendships.  

The description ‘loose parts’ was first explained by Simon Nicholson in 1971. His theory was based on the idea that children will play more imaginatively and flexibly with loose parts that are lying around than specifically designed play equipment.

‘In any environment both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.’

*The Scrapstore PlayPod introduces loose parts into school playgrounds to transform playtimes.    
                  

Here is another account from a playwork trainer of his observations of how loose parts play can make a significant impact on children’s approaches to play.
Further Reading

Theory of Loose Parts, An important principle for design methodology: Simon Nicholson 1972, Vol. 4, No. 2,

Play & Playwork, 101 stories of Children Playing: Fraser Brown 2014

The Value of Play: Perry Else 2009

You can also read our other blog posts in this series:
What is Play?, The Importance of Play, The Play Cycle, My Sofa: Enabling Environments, Easy Rider: Risk and Play, Children and Schemas, Visual Play Audit Service

Scrapstore Play Services offers a range of playwork training courses if you would like to find out more about playwork training and loose parts play in schools.
Phone us on 0117 9143002

Easy Rider - Supporting Risk & Challenge in Childrens Play

by Dan Rees Jones

One of the most difficult decision as a parent is deciding on whether the risk is too great for our children, do we stop them from climbing up that tree or do we let them do it and risk injury for what they might learn and discover? How do we assess risk and it's benefits. This blog post from the Parents 4 Play Series will disk risk in play and how we, as parents, can deal with it and embrace the benefits of letting our children take risks. 


You can also read our other blog posts in this series:

The Importance of Play, Barriers to Play, The Play Cycle, My Sofa: Enabling Environments, Easy Rider: Risk and Play, Children and Schemas, The Super Powers of Loose Parts

Giving my son his first ‘real’ bike for his 4th birthday was a mixed bag. It bought a lot of memories back from my BMX childhood; the freedom riding a bike gave me, the wind blowing through my hair, the long summers riding in the back lane and going on adventures, the speed, the homemade jumps, the adrenalin, the language ‘RAD!’, the hear misses, the crashes…

Part of me was really proud and excited for him ‘mastering a skill’ that would enable a sense of freedom and independence that would put him in control of something ultimately fast and exciting and dynamic, but from the first shakey hold and wobble to the local shops, part of me knew that the ‘mastering of this process’ was going to be a journey involving successes and failures, tears and laughter.

A week or so after his birthday we had a good space of free time and some nice-ish weather to do some biking. After watching a couple of videos on YouTube we took the pedals off together and then went to the park to do some gliding down some hills.  So there I was (an image you’ve seen a 1,000 times before) a father running behind a bike on a slope, steadying the saddle and then letting go… In that moment, after letting go, standing there with clenched teeth, observing the event unfold several feelings coursed through me all in an instant…

The parental emotional rollercoaster:

Hope: Go on you can do it 

Satisfaction: As a parent for having got to that point.   

Fear: Please don’t lose control and crash, what will your mum say?

Self-doubt: Was he really ready for this?  It will be my fault if he does crash!

Anxiety: What if I have now put him off for LIFE! 

Mild Nausea: probably as a result of the above.

Why do I want my child to take risks?

“If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.”

Lance Armstrong                                          www.brainyquote.com

‘NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED!’

"You can't get anywhere unless you're willing to take a risk.”

We’ve all heard it because the saying dates back to Chaucer (c. 1374) www.phrases.org.uk

On this initial occasion however, everything went smoothly, resulting in a slightly more confident child and very proud parent feeling relieved but happy that it went well, willing to go on that roller coaster again.  Watching my son take these risks is essentially different from taking risks myself, namely because I have no control over them. This lack of control created these emotions and feelings above.

As a playworker and trainer, I often talk about the comfort zones when it comes to understanding and supporting children taking risks within their play. Although this is widely used as a business model for developing innovation and coping with change, I feel that this model also helps us to understand our emotions whilst supporting risk taking in play.

Here Jeff Culley, president of Healthcare Management Solutions, summarises:

Most people live in their comfort zones, doing what feels familiar. While this is comfortable, no real learning or creativity takes place. When people move into their discomfort zones, they use their courage and begin to act on new possibilities. It is here that exploration and learning begins to take place.  Being aware of our actions, thoughts and feelings outside of our comfort zone helps us to identify our opportunities for learning, growing and changing. Just as it becomes a habit to operate inside of our comfort zone, we can also make a conscious habit to expand our comfort zone.

Over the next few months as my son ‘mastered’ cycling I was seemingly entering a discomfort zone, but this gradually lessened as both of our confidences grew to accommodate the new skill set. Now we regular enjoy mountain biking for hours around the trails in the woods. Those early anxieties a distant memory.

Now… what’s the next challenge?!

here is a an interesting presentation that could lead you and your children in the next direction:

Scrapstore Play Services offers a range of playwork training courses for parents that focus on helping children to take risk in play  

Phone us on 0117 9143002

USEFUL TIPS FOR PARENTS AND CARERS

Things you can consider:

Think back to your childhood and all the risks you took…

·         How risky were they?

·         What did taking that risk enable you to do afterwards?

·         How did you feel before and afterwards?

·         Did you learn anything from taking that risk?

Observing your child(ren):

·     How do you react when your child takes a risk? Consider our blog post ‘The Importance of Play’ and think about what the possible benefits of that taking that risk could be?

·    Your still not comfortable, that’s understandable, so what could you do to build up to this risky play that your child wants to engage in? Are there smaller steps you can take?

FURTHER READING:

Risky Play Prepares Kids for Life, the Guardian:

The Role of Risk in Play and Learning, Community Playthings:

What a pile of autumn leaves tells us about risk, Rethinking Childhood - Tim Gill:

The Importance of Play

By Scrapstore Play Services

Last month’s blog looked at what we mean by play. This month we’ll be exploring the undeniable facts of its importance to children’s healthy development, well-being and general happiness.

You can also read our other blog posts in this series:
The Importance of Play, Barriers to Play, The Play Cycle, My Sofa: Enabling Environments, Easy Rider: Risk and Play, Children and Schemas, The Super Powers of Loose Parts

 A busy park in Bath on a sunny Thursday morning, children from about 0-15, some with adults, some by themselves, are engaging in all sorts of different play opportunities that the park has to offer. This particular park has the benefit of sand, a water pump and a stream running all the way through the centre as well as overgrown areas, open green space, blackberry bushes, hillocks and play equipment. It’s a pretty good park! A parent and her toddler tentatively approach the large embankment slide (the adult clearly looking a little nervous while the toddler eagerly tries to wriggle free and go it alone). Once settled at the top, the parent takes a deep breath with the toddler on her lap and pushes off…….. only to squeak, wriggle and finally come to an underwhelming stop somewhere in the middle of the slide. It’s just not slidey enough and clearly without a tin of furniture polish no one is going anywhere! A few others attempt the slide, which is really quite big and looks so exciting, only to feel the disappointment of coming to a grinding halt mid-way down. A small group of children decide enough is enough and start to come up with some inventive ways to speed this slide up. They use sleeves and hats to polish the slide, they line the slide with leaves and grass, they take run ups and try every position from head first to bottom first backwards.

A girl of about 10, clocks a smaller sibling happily filling her bucket with water from the pump and emptying it into the stream. She runs down the slide, says something to the smaller child, grabs the bucket and runs off leaving her younger sister staring wistfully with a wobbly bottom lip. The girl pours the water down the slide. Bingo! What was an almost redundant piece of play equipment has suddenly become a rather fast and furious water slide. In no time a queue of mud soaked children has formed at the top of the slide, excitedly chatting about how they’ll approach it this time, whether they’ll be able to go faster and if they can manage it without banging their elbows (it’s really quite fast). Most of the adults in the park don’t take much notice, some smile at the inventiveness, some tut and shake their heads at the mess it’s made and how dangerous it looks. The parent and toddler are watching from the top and after some serious sleeve tugging from the toddler, whizz down the slide with a bump screaming with joy (and a little fear!)

So what makes this event important?

A sense of fun…? Children learning through play…? The freedom to control their environment…? There are many benefits that can be identified from this single event.….

I bet you could think of more things that happened as a result of this play emerging that morning. The 10 year old girl taking the lead, problem solving for the rest of the group. The sister coming to terms with her stolen bucket and the frustration that her play, in that moment, had been controlled by someone else. The opportunity that then arose from her play being interrupted.

Through play children learn what we can’t teach them. They are the masters of their universe. Of course not all play has to be on such a large scale; day dreaming whilst sitting in a cardboard box or throwing stones at nothing in particular can provide many important benefits to children.

The value of play

“Playing is integral to children’s enjoyment of their lives, their health and their development. Children and young people – disabled and non-disabled – whatever their age, culture, ethnicity or social and economic background, need and want to play, indoors and out, in whatever way they can. Through playing, children are creating their own culture, developing their abilities, exploring their creativity and learning about themselves, other people and the world around them.”

Play England – Charter for Children’s Play

Scrapstore Play Services offers a range of playwork training courses for early years practitioners, lunchtime staff and parents about play, playwork and the importance of play for children .

Phone us on 0117 9143002

USEFUL TIPS FOR PARENTS AND CARERS

Observing your child(ren):

• Next time you’re witnessing children at play, have a look and see if you can detect the benefits. Whether it seems menial, engaging, exciting, irritating or even downright dangerous it probably has an abundance of benefits to be observed.

Things for you to consider:

• You feel uncomfortable about what a child is doing and you stop that activity, don't penalise yourself - it pushed your boundaries, but have a think about what all the benefits of that play could be. If there are benefits, consider how you might allow that play to happen.
• Work towards risky play being allowed little by little, or consider what you could do to allow that play to occur e.g. a safer environment while you get used to it, change their clothes so it doesn't matter if they get dirty, choose an environment that you don't mind getting messy (go to a messy play session)...

No doubt there will be a good reason children are doing it, even if it’s just for its own sake!

FURTHER READING:

Why is Play Important, Play England:
Next month, we’ll continue this discussion by looking at the barriers to children being able to play in their communities. In the meantime, let us know what you think about the questions we raised or share your favourite childhood play memories.