Loose Parts

School Yard Loose Parts Collections

Pricing Enquiry

Loose Parts programs

What are loose parts?

Loose Parts is the name given to loose, tactile materials and everyday objects collected and subverted to serve collectively as a play resource.

Loose Parts are moveable pieces, generally of a disposable nature, that enable play-ers to create and recreate their own environments, totems and locus of play.

Play that emerges through engagement with these types of unspecified objects is free of expectation and provides opportunities to create play, rather than simply conduct play.  In contemporary Australia, humans engage less and less with these types of ambiguous artefacts, and experience reduced exposure to truly self-directed experiences with objects that don’t carry an implied use.

Loose parts have been found to improve school yard culture and to reduce incidents of antisocial behaviour. They do this by encouraging cross age interaction, the variation of gross motor movement and reducing sedentary behaviour, and by increasing the variety of play, including dramatic play and self-directed STEM-play. Loose Parts increase opportunities for valuable interpersonal and social skills by introducing opportunities for independent negotiation, compromise, resilience and collaboration… and they’re also a great deal of fun.

What are Loose Parts?

Loose Parts is the name given to loose, tactile materials and everyday objects collected and subverted to serve collectively as a play resource.

Loose Parts are moveable pieces, generally of a disposable nature, that enable play-ers to create and recreate their own environments, totems and locus of play.

Play that emerges through engagement with these types of unspecified objects is free of expectation and provides opportunities to create play, rather than simply conduct play.  In contemporary Australia, humans engage less and less with these types of ambiguous artefacts, and experience reduced exposure to truly self-directed experiences with objects that don’t carry an implied use.

Loose parts have been found to improve school yard culture and to reduce incidents of antisocial behaviour. They do this by encouraging cross age interaction, the variation of gross motor movement and reducing sedentary behaviour, and by increasing the variety of play, including dramatic play and self-directed STEM-play. Loose Parts increase opportunities for valuable interpersonal and social skills by introducing opportunities for independent negotiation, compromise, resilience and collaboration… and they’re also a great deal of fun.

Introduction and Maintenance

A Loose Parts collection is best introduced to schools where there is an existing liberal, rights-based culture.

Clear communication across a school community and a shared philosophy and purpose are important in their introduction and extended life. The broad effect on school culture and the largely contextual nature of play with loose parts, equally requires that its management is contextual also, and therefore we suggest it be guided by a school-wide Play Policy.

Without a Robust philosophy of childhood and clearly expressed beliefs in the role of the school as an institution of child development, schools are at the mercy of the most fearful in their community to dictate their policies; the most fearful parent, the most overzealous caretaker, the most frightened supervisor and the most officious and ill-informed health and safety inspector…

Michael Follett (2017)

Selecting Parts

The consideration of the range of ways that parts behave or their affordances*, is vital when selecting Loose Parts. This cannot be done in isolation and must consider the environment, the experience of the play-ers and more.

Reverse Art Truck have a great deal of experience curating loose parts for a range of purposes and our Education Manager, Cam is happy to work with staff and school representatives to choose the right parts for the right playground and to develop a strategy for introducing different parts.

Feel free to contact him at [email protected]

Cam is a trained Primary School STEM specialist with over a decade’s experience in classrooms and more than 12 years as an edupreneaur providing play-based learning activities, the last 8 of which he has curated and provided loose part play, both in schools and in public spaces (More on Cam’s Work HERE).

Typical loose parts may include:

  • netting
  • cloth
  • curved wood
  • small pallets
  • plastic pallets
  • traffic cones
  • core flute sheets
  • rope and webbing strap
  • tyres of all types
  • foam shapes
  • synthetic grass
  • sails
  • barrels of different sizes
  • Large plastic and cardboard tubes
  • carry-on suitcases
  • bread crates
  • milk crates
  • cushions
  • 15lt water bottles
  • big bags

*Affordance

Noun
A potential transaction that is made possible by a given object or environment.

Affordance refers to the perceived or potential action possibilities or opportunities for interaction that an object, environment, or system provide to an individual, referring to the way an object or environment “affords” or allows certain actions or behaviors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we train a few staff to manage the program?

I recommend that all staff receive training and work together to devise a school ‘play policy’, it is very important for the longevity, and possibly the safety of a loose parts program, to have whole staff and broader school community buy-in, and a shared deeper understanding of the values driving what’s going on in the program.
Sometimes play in the first few months can be somewhat chaotic and play-ers test boundaries, every teacher on duty needs to have a consistent understanding of the program and at what stage of the roll-out the school is at. Children who only have access to sports equipment or fixed playground equipment are likely to engage with new loose parts resources in quite experimental ways and in some circumstances this can lead to reactive measures where loose parts elements, or types of play, are “banned” from the playground; the value of loose parts is found in the play-ers ability to self-manage and this type of adult lead management can have a devastating impact on the program… Student self-management does not happen overnight however and children pass through a “Whoopie Period” while learning how loose parts can work for them. Passing through this period is necessary but with collaborative and intentional management is a far smoother process.
Caring and engaged parents sometimes take the initiative to introduce elements to the school loose parts collection on their own, without any consultation or understanding of how parts may be used and the risks or hazards they may be introducing to the yard. Whole school communication, consistently engaging parents, enables clear expectations and keeps the energy in the school positive.
The responsibility of a loose parts collection quickly becomes too great for a small number of staff.
An injury that occurs with common sports equipment in the playground is often deemed misadventure but the same injury caused by loose parts is often considered the fault of a loose parts program and its proponents, the fewer there are, the harder it is to advocate for the program. If it is a whole-school program and every teacher is able to positively express its benefits, values and strategy, then it continues and becomes a valuable asset to the school culture going forward indefinitely.
In some schools I have visited, one or two staff have full buy-in and find themselves harboured with extra yard duty because their colleagues don’t want, what they consider to be, responsibility for a risky program. In this instance it can be a huge burden but they do it anyway because they know the benefits for the students. This pressure is unnecessary and simply doesn’t exist in a collaborative roll-out, where all teachers fully understand and support the program.