Loose Parts Nurture Literacy

This past Saturday morning 63 of our community's early childhood professionals joined us at the Lake Tahoe Golf Course for a Breakfast and interactive workshop on Loose Parts with authors Lisa Daly & Miriam Beloglovsky. The focus for the morning was how children benefit from access to loose parts in the area of emerging literacy and culture.

It was an inspirational & engaging experience to have Lisa Daly & Miriam Beloglovsky share their wealth of knowledge about the rich benefits of using loose parts. The following are only a few high points of their presentation:

• Literacy emerges during meaningful interactions and experiences, which loose parts provide. 
• Loose parts help create a culture of joy, delight and curiosity because the experiences are freely chosen by the child- and not directed by the teacher or the purpose of a toy. In turn, child anxiety is reduced.
• Loose parts naturally advance children's cooperative play and provide rich opportunities for communication which fosters emerging literacy. 
• Loose parts support the development of symbolic play- using one to represent another object. Symbolic play is essential for language development as language is a system of abstract symbols (words) that represent objects and concepts in our world.
• Loose parts support a deeper level of learning: intellectual learning rather than just academic learning. Refer to the work of Dr. Lilian Katz for more on this subject.
• Loose parts support the development of 21st Century Learning Skills: Collaboration & Teamwork, Creativity & Imagination, Critical thinking, & Problem solving.
• Small world play can be very helpful in aiding literacy and language development. Two-daloo.com has a fantastic post about how to create meaningful small world play for young children. Loose parts can be used to make small worlds. 
• Research in early literacy reveals that exposure to nursery rhymes is related to greatly improved literacy outcomes. Loose parts can be used to support nursery rhymes by using the loose parts to reflect what is happening in the rhyme. 

  

  Aiken Drum created collaboratively by using loose parts while the group sang along..

Children's books recommended during the workshop which pair well with loose parts:

"Galimoto" by Karen Lynn Williams, Catherine Stock/ various colored wire strips and wire cutters

"Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert/ fallen leaves and other natural materials

"Roxaboxen"by Alice McLerran, Barbara Cooney/ various rocks

"Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell, Patrick Benson/ Pinecones, wool, sticks, tree "cookies", feathers, acorn caps

"Flatland"by David Sayre, Rebecca Emberly/ Flat round objects and cylinders for building

"Press Here" by Herve Tullet/ Multiple colors of circular lids and caps

"Rosie Revere Engineer" by Andrea Beatty, David Roberts/ a tinkering station

Also recommended by the presenters "The Great Disconnect in Early Education" by Michael Gramling

Also note: when you bring loose parts in, pull some of the toys out to make ample space to use the new items.