Autumn Themed Loose Parts Play
20 natural resources to collect
Okay so you might look at the title of this post and think, ‘What on earth is loose parts play?’
Are loose parts toys?
What does the term even mean?
There is, in fact, a whole pedagogy behind loose parts. The term was first coined by architect Simon Nicholson in 1971 when he wrote an article called , ‘The Theory of Loose Parts: How not to cheat children’ in the Landscape Architecture magazine.
In the article, Nicholson theorised that we are at our most creative when we can manipulate the world around us. However, the opportunity to do so is not always readily available:
Creativity is for the gifted few: the rest of us are compelled to live in environments constructed by the gifted few, listen to the gifted few’s music, use the gifted few’s inventions and art, and read the poems, fantasies and plays by the gifted few. This is what our education and culture conditions us to believe, and this is a culturally induced and perpetuated lie.
Simon Nicholson
Because of this, Nicholson proposed that more variables (loose parts) should be included within classrooms – and other educational settings – to help foster inventiveness and creativity in children:
In any environment, both inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.
Simon Nicholson
Although Simon Nicholson is credited with coining the term ‘loose parts’, children have always tinkered with random objects and nature treasures.
If you think about a child’s ability to turn a stick into just about anything or the jokes about children playing more with the cardboard box rather than the present, children can and do play creatively with a whole range of objects – we just need to provide them with opportunities to do so.
Items to Collect for Autumn:
Mini Pumpkins: Perfect for stacking or pretend play.
Conkers (Horse Chestnuts): Great for counting or making patterns.
Pine Cones: Useful for texture exploration or as ‘food’ in pretend play.
Leaves: For colour sorting, crafting and mud kitchen play
Twigs: Ideal for building structures or making shapes.
Acorns: Suitable for counting games or as money in a play shop.
Smooth Stones: Can be used for storytelling, painting, or stacking.
Corn Husks: These can be used for crafting or in sensory bins.
Pompoms: Offer a soft texture and can represent fruits, animals, or just fun elements.
Dried Orange Slices: Ideal for sensory exploration or as decorations.
Fabric Scraps: For making flags, costumes, or other crafts.
Buttons: Useful for colour sorting, counting, or crafting.
Feathers: Can be used in storytelling or as costume elements.
Bark: Good for creating ‘roads’ in a mini-city or ‘walls’ for a fairy house.
Craft Sticks: Ideal for counting, sorting, or making imprints in playdough.
Beads: Excellent for stringing, sorting, or laying out patterns.
Corks: These float, making them perfect for water play.
Rubber Bands: Can be used for crafting or to bind other loose parts together.
Foam Shapes: For crafting, sorting, and building.
Straws: These can be used for building structures or threading beads.
You can also add toys from your play space into an Autumn loose parts box. The following makes for great additions:
Grapat coins and rings
Grapat or Grimms peg dolls
Woodland animal figurines
Store- bought loose parts from companies such as Grapat and Tick-it
Play Invitations to try:
Autumn Loose Parts in Small world play
There’s something so sweet about using real mini pumpkins in play. In the photo below, my daughter had taken her Maileg mice on a trip to the pumpkin patch.
Exploring mathematical concepts:
What’s heavier and what’s lighter? All you need is a weighing scales in addition to the Autumn loose parts to explore basic mathematical concepts with pre-schoolers.
Pre-writing shapes and lines
Before learning to write, children need to be able to create basic shapes and lines. One of the earliest ways to practise this is by copying the pre-writing shapes with loose parts – as shown below.
Mirror Exploration
Placing the Autumn loose parts onto a mirror can help young children explore reflection. Use a Perspex (non-breakable mirror) with very young children.
Note, if you do this activity outside like we did, make sure that the mirror is not placed in direct sunlight!
Crossing the midline
Pinecones and conkers are a great resource for crossing the midline exercises – that is where the dominant hand crosses over to the other side of the body. Working on this helps children to become more competent writers in the future.
Nature Shape Match
Puzzles and matching activities help young children to work on their problem solving skills. To recreate this activity, simply collect a few nature treasures, then draw around them with a black marker. Place all of the items into a basket and invite your child to match the shapes.
Number Match with conkers
Number recognition, along with subitising and one to one correspondence is an important part of the early years of becoming a confident mathematician. Games like this simple conker match could be used in a variety of ways to help children become more familiar with numbers.
Mud Kitchen
Take the Autumn loose parts you have collected outside to make recipes or potions.
Age Recommendations
Because of the small parts used here, I wouldn’t recommend the activities for children under the age of three. Please also be aware that conkers are, so would be unsuitable for children who put objects in their mouths.
Key Benefits
Loose parts play can have many benefits for little learners. Depending on the way play goes, it can have the following benefits:
Creative thinking – how to create with the items produced
Problem solving
Connecting to the world around us – e.g. going on a nature hunt then using the treasures for play.
Early math – e.g. counting or making shapes
Language development – introducing new and seasonal words such as pumpkin, leaves and Autumn
Development of fine motor skills
