It can be tricky, once summer is over and the weather is more hit-and-miss, to find activities to occupy toddlers both outdoors and at home. Some days you just need to be in the house or garden; for us, this is when loose parts play comes into its own!
Using loose parts is a great way to develop fine motor skills as well as encourage creativity and problem-solving skills in toddlers. Whether it is a trip to the beach or a wander in the woods, things like shells, stones, pinecones and conkers all make it back in bags (or pockets) into our home. Rather than bin all of these ‘treasures’, we’ve made a loose parts box, which Little loves to raid through, sort, organise and add to his ‘collection’.
Loose parts are so versatile; they can easily be utilised for early maths work, counting, weighing, balancing, ordering by size, grouping by shape or colour. They are also easily used in early art work, exploring pattern, texture and colour.
5 budget-friendly places to source loose parts:
– Natural materials- beaches and woodlands are brilliant for these.
– Homeware or pound shops- flat based glass beads are really useful.
– Using parts already in the toy box- dominoes are a favourite with Little, he often uses them to build fences for his farm animals.
– Recycling box- egg cartons, small boxes or containers, lids, etc.
– DIY- cutting pieces of wood into circles or square blocks makes a budget-friendly loose parts resource.
Loose parts is also a great starting point for exploring themes or environments in a story, or opening up a discussion to develop speaking and listening skills. Using a ‘faces’ set up can easily be used to help talk a toddler through different feelings or emotions and think together about ways to start practicing controlling them when they are finding this tricky.
Does your toddler like collecting loose parts to play with? I’d love to see what they have made with them! Share your ideas over on social media:
For more literacy ideas on a budget, check out the Rabbit Ideas blog:
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