Happy New Year!  Happy New Decade!  What a great time to adopt new strategies to promote children’s creativity and exploration!

An easy and inexpensive way to do so is by incorporating loose parts into the learning environment.  “Loose parts” is a term used to describe any material that can be used in an open-ended manner.  These are materials that can be used in many different ways, or for many different purposes.

Loose parts can be recycled materials, found objects, or items from nature. Ideally, the materials are free, but some loose parts can be found in stores or from supply vendors for very little investment.

In this newsletter, we will explore the benefits of loose parts and materials that are appropriate to use with children of different ages. If you are interested in learning more about bringing these valuable learning materials into your environment, be sure to check out one of CCEI’s newest courses, CUR125: Loose Parts: Incorporating Found Objects and Open-Ended Materials into the Classroom. This course is the free trial course of the month of January 2020 for individuals who are new to CCEI, so be sure to share with your colleagues!

For the article Benefits of Loose Parts, CLICK HERE

For the article Loose Parts for Infants & Toddlers, CLICK HERE

For the article Loose Parts for Older Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner – Helping Teachers Get Started with Loose Parts, CLICK HERE