To help children explore their creative vision, we keep a collection of what are termed “loose parts”. Loose parts are things that can be played with, manipulated, and combined in open-ended ways. They can be used over and over again in different projects. When children have access to loose parts, their inventiveness and creativity can run wild. They experience the magic of discovery and the challenge of problem-solving.
Loose parts play has been shown to have wonderful benefits to children’s development. Exploring loose parts:
- Encourages creativity and imagination, supporting self-expression, concentration, curiosity, and confidence.
- Develops problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Children explore trial and error, compare and contrast, evaluate ideas, make predictions, explain outcomes, and think of creative solutions. They develop the focus and self-control to solve problems and follow through on their goals.
- Supports social and emotional development by encouraging children to communicate and collaborate with one another. As they play, they exchange ideas, negotiate, take turns, consider different perspectives, and take an interest in the work of others. They explain their own methods and discuss different ideas and theories together.
- Strengthens fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and hand strength.
- Fosters language and literacy development by providing endless opportunities for children to expand their vocabulary as they develop descriptive and storytelling skills.
- Supports scientific learning as children explore and discover the properties of materials and observe cause-and-effect relationships. Through hands-on experimentation, they learn about concepts such as texture, sound, gravity, balance, and motion. Loose parts play naturally encourages them to ask questions and seek answers, an important aspect of scientific inquiry.
Loose parts play also honors children as capable thinkers and creators, which is one of our biggest values at WonderWild. Children are invited to follow their own ideas, take risks, and trust their instincts. They feel ownership over their work and pride in their discoveries. By offering loose parts, we create an environment where curiosity is valued, experimentation is encouraged, and creativity is celebrated!
How you can help
In the olden days, kids’ creativity was almost always fueled by “trash” – think bottle tops, old pasta, and popsicle sticks leftover from actually eating popsicles. These days they’re more likely to work with brand new items. That’s ok! We love a craft store or hardware store shopping spree as much as anyone! However, we also keep an eye on the budget, hoping to keep WonderWild as affordable as possible. And kids need a lot of building, crafting, and creating supplies!
🏠 Spring cleaning or clearing out your basement/attic/garage? We might be able to use some items you’re planning to discard/donate.
🎨 Given up on your last crafting hobby? Send your unused supplies our way!
🛞 Love to go thrifting? You can help us out by keeping an eye out for cool stuff!
If you’d like to support WonderWild, one fun way you can help is to keep an eye out for items that you can donate to our program. Even in this modern age, there’s a lot of “trash” that we can put to very good use!
What are we looking for?
🪣 Containers: buckets, bags, bins, boxes, crates, tubs. We LOVE cardboard boxes, empty yogurt containers, or those free promotional cloth bags you have too many of.
🥘 Mud Kitchen Items: pots, pans, trays, muffin tins, plates, bowls, serving spoons, spatulas, other large utensils.
🟪 Fabric: Sheets, shower curtains, picnic blankets, tarps.
🧱 Building Materials: leftover rope/cord (lots of this!), boards, bricks, pipes, poles, chain, hooks, wheels, handles, hinges, springs. We check to make sure these are free from rust and sharp edges.
💎 Pretty Collectible Things: beads, buttons, glass stones, river rocks, coins, game pieces, poker chips, dominos, shells, etc. The kids use these types of things for game money, for trading and collecting, and to decorate their spaces. They get lost easily, so we go through a LOT of these! We also love “small world” items – small figurines of people, animals, trees, dollhouse items, etc.
📖 Books: We take book donations of any kind. We’ll read them, use them for collage parts, or trade them in for McKay’s credit.
🎨 Art/Craft Supplies: any kind of paper, crayons/markers/pens, glue, string, twine, tape, paint, chalk, cotton balls, craft sticks, stickers, felt, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, beads, and also tools such as rulers, scissors, hole punches, glue guns, and of course, the trusty cardboard tubes!
🪑 Furniture: We don’t need a lot of furniture in our small space, but check if you have tables, chairs, shelves, or cushions you’re getting rid of, especially if they’re suitable for outdoors.
🛝 Unicorns: The most exciting find could be a BIG item that can no longer be used for its original purpose. Teacher Tom‘s playground has an old row boat in the center, for example. Or what about a slide that’s missing its steps? Or an old metal bed frame? Who knows! Ask, and we’ll let you know if we could imagine a new use for it.