Loose Parts Initiative

Feeding Your Child’s Curious Mind

Our ‘loose parts’ philosophy is a key part of your child’s play and exploration here at St. Bernard’s. To enrich this type of learning for your child, we even have a dedicated room called The Curiosity Room. It’s designated specifically for the exploration of loose parts and authentic objects.

What is ‘Loose Parts’?

Loose parts are items of natural or man-made objects such as nature-based items, wood, plastic, metal ceramic, glass, fabric/ribbon or packaging that can be used to extend and further ideas in children’s play. They are open-ended materials that can be moved, combined, taken apart, redesigned, lined-up in any way a their imagination takes them!

There is no predetermined use or function, they simply feed your child’s creative thinking to becoming anything!

Why loose parts?

It promotes a wide variety of play, including social play, dramatic play, constructive play, symbolic play, and even games with rules, when your child makes up their own games with the materials. Your child can experiment with sand, water, buckets, and stacking materials along with truly any open-ended material, opening endless possibilities for your child to truly become critical thinker.

Your child is naturally curious and creative, competent and capable, intelligent and problem solver. Our Curiosity Room is an environment with infinite play opportunities. This is beneficial because it reaches such a deep cognitive level of thinking and problem solving, allowing your child to do the thinking unlike a manufactured toy that has set directions.

‘Real life’ Resources

Many of our resources are ‘real’ including real china teapots, real food in the home corner, china mugs, plates and glasses. This encourages your child to value the resources and their play, learning the consequences for their actions e.g. if they drop or throw a tea pot it will break; learning to respect the resources by taking more care and returning them to where they belong when they have finished playing. Through these experiences we give value to their play, inspire their creativity, encourage critical thinking and promote problem solving skills; setting them up with the skills needed for a bright fulfilled future.