Loose Parts, STEAM, and the Missing Letter

If you've been around these blog parts for a while, you're already well versed in my love of loose parts and small world play. I truly have a passion for the use of loose parts in the home and classroom from infancy all the way up through adulthood. (Yes, I play, too!) So often when we talk about loose parts, we talk about their use in STEM/STEAM activities as children develop science, technology, engineering, art and math skills through open ended exploration of materials both nature and man-made. Everybody loves a great acronym, but I think a letter was left out of the mix when it comes to loose parts play and STEAM: L! Literacy and Language Development are integral components of early childhood development and loose parts play is a fabulous way to foster these skills.

Read all about it here!

I have written on the topic of Loose Parts Play and Literacy before and you can read all about it (and so much more!) at Fantastic Fun and Learning. Early literacy through intentionally set up play spaces and activities is a topic near and dear to my heart. Today, however, I am focusing more on the way that children naturally develop language and early literacy skills (from as young as infancy) through meaningful play opportunities with loose parts.

Have you ever observed young children at play and noticed the way that they will hold a running monologue of what they are doing and what is happening? As they build, tinker, create and later, engage in symbolic play opportunities, children use language to describe their play and thought processes. Earlier on, this typically manifests in the third person narrative and later on, often develops into talking through characters and their experiences. What young children may not realize is that these are the beginnings of storytelling (and down the line, writing) skills! Our little players are indeed young authors! Encouraging them in this process can truly ignite a lifelong love of language, literacy and learning overall and an environment rich in loose parts and open ended play materials can support this.

Ok, but now what? If you're newer to the loose parts scene, beginning can always feel overwhelming and I want to quell that anxiety as much as possible. You don't need to go out and buy a lot or dig through your home and set out a whole lot of materials. The "loose" in loose parts is not synonymous with "little" or "lots and lots." In fact, particularly for younger ones, just a few different materials at a time can be enough to explore and tinker and ignite the imagination. Too many materials can be overstimulating and overwhelming. Many times we also mistakenly assume that loose parts refers to small objects that the very young cannot safely explore and this, too, is a misconception. Large, movable objects like recycled cardboard tubes, fabrics and silks, boxes and blocks can all make fabulous loose parts for very young players. 

Elements of color, sound, texture, position (whether it is high up like these scarves or within reach like these sensory balls and blocks) all spark curiosity and natural exploration. Even pre-verbal infants and young toddlers are developing early language skills as they explore, tinker and create with these objects. The addition of our own conversation in support of their play helps to enrich the experience with language connection.

Pace and Process: Our agenda with truly open ended loose parts play is different from that of an intentionally set up play invitation. Certainly, both of these scenarios have value. However, in open ended exploration, the player is the maker and creator. The objects he chooses may not "go together" or make sense to us, but this is his experience. The order of operations may also confound our adult minds, but it is assisting in developing the child's mind and critical thought processes.




For instance, just last night S was sifting through our STEAM Cart for some loose parts to tinker with. He came over to the art center with about 4 or 5 large wooden craft sticks and asked if he could use some tape on them. Generally speaking the definition of loose parts play excludes tape/glue and leaves opportunity for continued use, but I totally support the addition of these items when it's asked for. I asked S what he was making and he said he wasn't sure yet. I was curious to observe his process. He taped the wooden sticks together, binding them in four locations with masking tape. From there, he went back to the drawers and chose a paper straw. "Can I tape one of these on?" he asked. "Sure!" I answered, eager to see what was next. He taped the straw on, noticing that the sticks were made from wood and asking what the straw was made from. I told him it was made from very thick paper. From there, he held the contraption sideways against his lips to blow from the straw and announced he'd made a flute! He blew and hummed through the hole of his flute and I was simply astounded at the process. He didn't go into the process with a plan to make a flute, rather, he chose materials, put them together and it turned out in the end to be a flute. As adults, we often think in our adult mindset that a plan comes first, then a process, then a result. With children, this is not necessarily so. And for S, this play opportunity to use the materials he chose in the way he wanted and the order of operations he followed all supported his ability to problem solve and create his own story and process.

Even the process of building and woodworking becomes an opportunity for building language and sequencing as S navigates the process of taking loose materials and turning them into something else.

 Here, he decided to make a bed that was later used for Goldilocks so she would not need to
sleep in the beds of the Three Bears.

Look Who's Talking: When selecting loose parts, I tend to love natural options. Even taking children out into nature to gather and collect pine cones, seed pods, leaves, sticks, rocks and wood pieces can ignite storytelling opportunities. Children create their own props for stories and dictate their processes as they navigate the way these work together. Perhaps something is not functioning in its intended manner, and the child must reconstruct in a new way. Language supports them and dictates the process. It helps them to problem solve and to navigate elements of their stories. We can further support the process by acknowledging that they are storytellers and giving value to this experience. We can also try as much as possible to refrain from too much of our own dialogue and input and to make room for theirs. It is so tempting as adults to ask "what are you making?" or "what is next?" and while our intentions are the very best, we can inadvertently give forth the idea that all processes of play are product oriented and that time is limited.

Time is of the Essence: Maria Montessori wrote about a concept called false fatigue in play, during which a child will seem disengaged with their activity and we [falsely] assume this means they are done and need a new activity. Rather, this is a period of transition before which play reaches a new level--a pause, so to speak. I think that one of the greatest detriments to the pace of the current early childhood classroom is the loss of open ended time for activities, play included. We have so many opportunities and activities for children to explore that everything is on a clock; our clock. First there's table time and then it's time for Circle and look, now it's snack time and we have to go outside. We are also set to this pace as adults and we often assume that it is what our children need. We are certain that their young attention spans cannot stay with one space or activity for longer than a few minutes. And while I do agree that "sitting still" is not a developmentally appropriate expectation, staying with an activity that truly engages a child is an opportunity that is often lost in our culture.

Resisting the Urge to Rescue: More recently having been on Winter Break from school, S had the opportunity to experience boredom. When I say "boredom," I mean, unfilled space and time. Parts of our day that were not automatically filled with an activity for him, but rather a time he had an opportunity to choose his own. It was a struggle! He often needed to sit for a few minutes before deciding what to do. (These moments usually came after one activity had ended and before another began.) Sometimes I would give a suggestion and other times, I did not. I would assure him gently that with a space full of things to use and a mind full of ideas on how to use them, I knew he would come up with something great. And that it was OK to sit a minute with the thoughts about it. I resisted the urge to "solve his problem," because truly boredom is not a problem; it's an opportunity. We think of boredom as a feeling that is very uncomfortable and it can be, but it can also be OK to sit back and think and we need to assure our children that this is so. S would indeed sit on the couch for a few minutes and then move forward.
Another challenge that frequently arises in our home is one in which S (or Y) has an idea of something he wants to use in his play and it is either put away somewhere else or not in our current rotation. We are short on space here and it used to always be that I felt compelled then to go get what the boys were asking for and rescue them from the discomfort of not having it right away, or, heaven forbid, having to solve the problem another way. More recently, I decided to say instead that I could not get it right away and ask what else could be used. Naturally, nearly seamlessly, the boys both gravitated toward what was available in our STEAM Cart, art shelves or play area and use the materials in novel ways to support their play schemas. S was able to use straws and metal hex nuts to make birthday candles on a cake Y made from playdough to celebrate a fictional character's birthday party. We did not need to immediately go upstairs and get the plastic cupcake dishes out and the set of birthday candles we use for sensory play.

I credit a lot of my boys' problem solving skills to the opportunities they've had to play with open ended loose parts. They create small worlds and intricate stories. They solve problems for and through their characters and thereby solve problems for themselves. And while much of the experience does touch upon those other letters in STEM/STEAM, I also know that they are gaining so much in the area of language and literacy development. Sometimes I might offer to take down dictation of their small world scenes and stories or the process by which they built or created something. In this way, they come to connect the rich value of language with that of written word. Sometimes I do this through photos and we hang them at child level for them to see their play and creation experiences. I don't need to tell them that I am giving them the gift of becoming literate (they can thank me later). The greatest gift we can give our children at this stage and well beyond it is the opportunity for unrestricted, self-led exploration.

Happy Playing!

Mad Science Monday: Study of Chromatography & Butterfly Craft

Leave it to preschool science to teach me a word I'd never heard before: chromatography. Language development in children (and adults!) is one reason I love doing Mad Science Mondays both in the classroom and now, at home! I first came across this experiment last spring when I was teaching 4-5 year olds on this great blog post from buggyandbuddy.com. It combined two of my favorite things in life: Mr. Sketch markers (my nose is still all different colors from sniffing these scented markers as a child) and butterflies! Since we have been learning about and growing our own butterflies here, this was the perfect time to try the experiment with S, who has appreciated the crafty results of my classroom experience with it lining the walls of our stairwell at home over the last year.

Chromatography is a "fancy science word" (as I always tell my young scientists when introducing vocabulary) that means "separating mixtures." Many times, we talk to children and work with them on mixing colors, but can you "un-mix" colors? Is the ink inside the markers we use really the color it appears when we use it on paper (or in this case, coffee filters)? It should be noted that this is a very rudimentary definition of chromatography and that I, nonetheless, do not shy away from using big words with little kids--this is a great way to build vocabulary and confidence all in one fell swoop!

To perform your own study of chromatography and make a cute butterfly craft to go with it, you will need:

• white coffee filters
• Mr. Sketch Markers* *these are suggested as the markers that work best for the experiment, however any non-permanent marker can be used
• pencil
• cups or jars of water
• pipe cleaners
• paper plates, art mats, paper towels or newsprint for protecting the table and drying wet work on
• string and a clothes hanger or push pins for hanging your butterflies when done

Instructions:

• To demonstrate chromatography, choose one color to test per coffee filter. If you have an eager young scientist with a love for art who wants to test many colors on one coffee filter, you can allow for that as well!
• Label your coffee filter with the name of the color you are testing. Hint: if you are only testing a few colors, I highly recommend testing out black and brown!

• Draw a thick ring around the center circle of the coffee filter in your color of choice. Again, if you have an eager young scientist who wants to test out drawing other shapes or lines on the coffee filter, that's OK--you'll still see amazing results!
• Fold your coffee filter in half twice to create a cone shape. Using a short glass of water works best so that you can place just the uncolored tip into the water and not turn the water any color in the process. In  my classroom, I had short bell jars I used and at home I only had larger plastic cups. Again, your results will still show even if you do not have the exact proper size of cup/glass.

• Let your coffee filter sit and steep--watch with your young scientists as water is absorbed and flows up the paper! We talked about words like "absorb" and how that means to soak or drink up the water. Since we have also been doing a lot of gardening here, S reminded me that this is how plants drink water from the ground!
• Once water has reached the outer edge of your coffee filter, it's time to take it out and let it dry flat (I found paper plates to work well for this, but you can dry them on paper towels or newsprint if you prefer).
• Observe and discuss the results! Which colors were comprised of the most colors mixed together? Which had the fewest? 

Brown and Black are always my favorite colors to see "un-mixed," and even resemble monarch butterflies
a bit when dry and completed!

• Once they are dry, you can scrunch and fold your colorful coffee filters into a butterfly shape and gather the center by looping a pipe cleaner around the center and shaping your antennae. You can twirl or bend your antennae and you can either pin/tape your butterflies to the wall or create a beautiful mobile using string and a clothes hanger. They would even make a lovely addition to a wrapped present in place of a bow!

This year's flock of butterflies...

Last year's flock--as you can see, I'm not ready to part with the beautiful results of this simple science experiment!

This simple activity is a great way to explore science at home or in a classroom and a great way to decorate your home or classroom afterward. I even had the older sibling of one of my students use this as her science fair activity last year! It's a great supplement to learning about butterflies, colors, or just some spring/summertime fun. 

We've had such fun and amazement following our caterpillars' journey from baby caterpillar, to growing caterpillar, to chrysalis to butterfly, and this was a fabulous way to compliment that at home. We will definitely be back with more about that adventure, but until then...

Happy Playing!

Mad Science Monday: Building & Testing Bridges

One of my favorite things about play-based learning is that almost any target skill set can be incorporated into a learning theme. Our Around the World theme is certainly no exception. It even inspired this week's science experiment, a great one to incorporate STEM activities into your routine. STEM refers to any educational activity that promotes the learning and practice of science, technology, engineering and/or math. There is a countrywide push to develop an interest and proficiency in skills related to these areas throughout schooling and onward into higher education. The goal is to continue progress in these career and educational fields.


Children are such natural scientists! Their minds are inherently curious and so much of their daily lives involves posing questions, testing theories and critically thinking through the results. Guided science opportunities encourage this way of thinking. Through experiments and explorations, vocabulary is built. A greater threshold for tolerating, learning from and even welcoming failures is developed. The practical process of taking a question, setting up and testing an experiment and learning from the results is refined. Oh, and it's fun!

As we were "visiting" England in our Around the World unit and learning about bridges, this experiment seemed like a great way to incorporate those themes into our weekly science activity:

Recording the Process: We often use chart paper for this or a journal. I encourage drawing and dictating about our experiments as well, as this is a precursor to being able to  write about them independently.

Building Bridges: Strong, Stronger and Strongest

We used:

• Magnetiles for the base of the bridge
• glass stones (you could also use pennies or some other small, consistently sized object that you can use as weights)
• construction paper, card-stock and cardboard, all cut to the same size

Whenever you wish to run an experiment, it is important to focus on testing one variable. In a laboratory, you can truly refine an experiment to test one variable at a time without other factors interfering. At home (and with children) this can be a little more challenging, so we do our best to have ONE thing that will change throughout the experiment, and to make sure everything else stays the SAME. In this experiment, we made sure the bridge base was the same height and width each time and always used the same number of Magnetiles on either size. We kept the area of the bridge top the same even as the material changed. We chose an object as our test subject (glass stones) that are all about the same size and weight. Pennies would also work well for this, but not, for instance, a variety of different coins at one time.

Making Predictions

I set out our materials and explained that we wanted to find out which material would make the strongest bridge. I introduced our three vocabulary words, "strong, stronger, strongest."  I invited my son to make a prediction about what would happen during the experiment and explained that this is "an educated guess." It was OK to be right or wrong and we were trying to find out which material would hold the most glass stones before caving in. Interestingly, my son accurately predicted the results of our experiment, though at 2.5 years old, I think this was more coincidence! My main objective in encouraging a prediction phase was just to introduce the concept of making a guess beforehand and being OK whether that was "right" or "wrong" in the end. 

When testing bridges with young, Magnetile-loving toddlers, I highly recommend having extra blocks on hand and extra stones as well. Tinkering with materials is also a part of experimenting and exploring! 

Even after our experiment was complete, he had a lot of fun building, testing and tinkering with his own bridges!

As I demonstrated and talked through testing each of the three bridge surfaces, I encouraged my junior scientist to help. I showed him how to place the stones in the middle of the structure. I invited him to join me in counting out our results. Science experiments with very junior scientists are not ever flawless, but the main idea is to introduce scientific concepts and thinking. Foremost, I want for the children I teach (especially my own) to love science activities--I care more about that than I do about "accuracy."

Construction paper

Card-stock

Cardboard: Still going...

WOW! The cardboard is strong enough to hold ALL of the stones PLUS the plastic dish!

Our results!

Happy building, experimenting and playing!

Around the World: Exploring the Brazilian Rain Forest!

Whenever I introduce a country's flag, I point out familiar
colors and shapes my son can recognize. 

Bem vindo ao Brasil! Today our world travel adventure took us to another South American country. I introduced our journey with the same continents song and airplane song presented in this post and as soon as we touched down, my son was greeted with a new stamp for his passport. We learned how to greet someone in Portuguese and looked at a photo of the Brazilian flag in a book of world flags we borrowed from our local library. We talked about the rain forests in Brazil and looked at some non-fiction books about rain forests also borrowed from our library.

My little monkey loved gluing ears to this paper plate
mask and coloring it a bit with crayons as we acted out
the action rhyme, "Five Little Monkeys."

Since we are learning about the letter "Mm" this week, we began with some activities centered around monkeys. This fun action rhyme is a great one for toddlers preschoolers:

Five Little Monkeys
Five little monkeys swinging from a tree
  [hold up hand with five fingers]
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "you can't catch me!"
[wag finger back and forth, teasingly]
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
And snapped [clap] that monkey right out of the tree!
[hands together, wiggle like an alligator toward child/children]

We used our journal and stickers for a "Five Little Monkeys"
picture and math activity.

We talked about other plants and animals found in the rain forest. Our library books made a great

I based our tree frog scavenger
hunt on an activity found in
this fabulous book. I highly
recommend it!

resource. Even though children's non-fiction can be a bit wordy for very early readers, the photographs are invaluable and you can paraphrase or select particularly relevant passages to read together. Never underestimate the non-fiction side of your library's children's department! Seeing actual photographs of topics that they are learning or curious about helps children to feel connected to people and things outside of their immediate environment and can help them relate to people and things inside of their immediate environment!

We learned a bit about tree frogs and toads in the rain forest. Looking at photographs together, we were able to see how some tree frogs and toads are brightly colored giving predators (animals that might want to eat them) a warning that they are poisonous and not safe to eat. Others have colors that blend in with their surroundings, helping them to camouflage. I am all about teaching little kids big words--this increases vocabulary and confidence in communication. Next, we went on our very own tree frog scavenger hunt. While my son was busy finishing his supper, I hid 5 plastic frogs in our play area. I explained that we were going to be rain forest explorers and provided a magnifying glass, binoculars and a plastic jar to fill with our findings. We needed to find 5 hidden tree frogs. Some might be camouflaged and some might be brightly colored. I offered clues along the way, and my little explorer had a blast collecting the frogs in his jar!

Want to do more?

Gross Motor: Rain forest Yoga! We found a great rain forest themed yoga video on YouTube via Cosmic Kids. My little Yogi LOVES this series (and so do I)!

Play Soccer or learn some Judo! Soccer is a popular Brazilian sport and Brazilian Judo is a widely practiced martial art across the world. If weather permits, take a soccer ball outside to play together. You can also teach your little athlete that Brazilians refer to this sport as "football," rather than "soccer." My husband happens to be trained in Brazilian Judo, so my son has been learning some moves with him over his short life and some Portuguese vocabulary to go with it. You can likely find some great videos online or at your local library.

Cooking Activity: talk about foods that grow in the rain forest. We learned that bananas and cocoa beans are found in rain forests. We baked banana chocolate chip bread together that will surely be enjoyed as a Shabbos treat this week (if there is any left by then)!

My little Yogi

 Sorting Game: Create a large poster with a vertical line down the center. Label one side "animals found in the rain forest" and the other side "animals not found in the rain forest." Alternatively, you can use masking tape for your line directly on your floor and sentence strips or smaller sheets of paper to label your categories. Using stickers, pictures cut from magazines or printed from the computer, toy animals or even felt ones if you happen to have a flannel board set to sort your rain forest dwellers from those who live in other terrains. Younger ones may need more assistance and clues (you can use those fabulous library books as a reference!) while older children may be able to work through the activity more independently.

Animal Antics: Play a game of rain forest animal charades. Using pictures of rain forest animals and/or cards with animal names written on them, invite each player to act out their animal while others try to guess what it is. Alternatively, play "I'm Thinking of a Rain Forest Animal." On his/her turn, a player thinks of a rain forest animal without disclosing it to the audience. "I'm thinking of an animal, can you guess what it is?" Players will have an opportunity to take three guesses before asking for a clue. The player will then provide a clue about the animal (like what color(s) it is, how it moves, what it eats, etc.) and guessers can continue to try to solve the riddle, asking for clues as needed. Whomever is first to accurately guess the animal in question gets to play the next turn. This is a great game to play on a car trip or while waiting for an appointment or a restaurant meal to arrive.

We are having a fabulous time on our Brazilian Rain Forest adventure. Next week we are leaving South America and heading to a new continent: Europe... See you there and until then, pleasant travels and happy playing!

Noah's Ark Theme: Part 2

The Noah's Ark themed fun and learning continues here. As we explore the colors of the rainbow, I am strategically also placing in hands-on learning and experimenting with how primary colors mix into secondary colors. While we began our texture collage yesterday with the red and yellow sections, today we explored what happens when you mix red and yellow to create orange!

Today, I set out two pitchers of water, one dyed red, one dyed yellow.

We poured red water into the bottle until it was about half full and yellow to fill the other half. I sealed it tightly and then (mainly just for the fun of it) it was time to shake it up! Sure enough, we made orange! Adding color to water play activities with tools like measuring cups, empty containers, funnels and droppers is a great way to add some fun to this already wonderful sensory activity and experience color mixing. Since adding all of the colors at once generally results in brown here (an equally important educational experience though it may be), I usually provide two primary colors at a time. To extend this particular activity, I provided a bit of yellow and red paint at his easel for some color mixing process art.

What Goes Where in Noach's Teivah? In Noach's teivah (ark), there were three separate levels. Noach and his wife as well as his three sons and their wives all resided on the top. The animals all lived in the middle. The bottom level was reserved for food/garbage. Activities like this are a great way to introduce the important mathematical skills of sorting/categorizing and can also be a fabulous tool for teaching early spacial language skills--in this case, the concepts of top, middle, and bottom. 

We started by sorting plastic people, animals and food into their designated levels.

We repeated the same activity, now with pictures cut from old magazines of people, animals and food. Older children could participate in cutting out magazine pictures and if you also teach about the concept of garbage being stored on the bottom level, crumpled up pieces of tissue paper or scrap paper/newspaper could be used.

Now we have a wonderful visual reminder of today's activities! It's hanging at child-level for the artists' appreciation. 

My little one is loving this song about colors right now!