In PHQP_0016 Concepts As Loose Parts, Jeff explores concepts as loose parts. For example, kids use bubbles, kites, and tossed handfuls of sand to discover and learn about the wind. Episode Video Watch Now: PHQP_0016 Concepts As Loose Parts Episode Notes Loose Parts Ideas Loose Parts Articles Loose Parts Handouts The Concepts As Loose Parts Transcript Welcome to the Playvolution HQ podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson. Thanks for pushing play on with the show. So I'm out about in the neighborhood the other day and I hear from a secondary balcony, I hear this toddler voice yelling, look. And so I looked and there this little guy is blowing bubbles and he's very excited about it. He's visiting his grandma and grandma's got him this little bubble gun thing and he dips it in the bubbles and squirts it, squeezes the trigger and bubbles fly up in the air. And he doesn't have a lot of language. And I don't speak toddler as fluently as I used to, but we managed to communicate with each other that yes, he's making bubbles and yes, they're flying up in the air and yes, they're going fast and he's shooting them. And he's very excited to tell my dog Gigi about the bubbles too. And I was very happy for this interaction because one, I love the joy of discovery in young children, especially toddlers, because we forget sometimes how brand new to the world young kids are. Even six, seven, eight, nine, 10 year olds are still experiencing some things for the first time. And so when we can take a little bit of joy out of their discoveries, we should go for that ride. But also his exploration with the bubbles had a lot to do with what we're getting into this week, which brings us to topic number one, concepts as loose parts. So here's the deal. He was playing with bubbles and so they were loose parts, I guess for him, because a loose part is an environmental variable with which we can interact. And we did an earlier episode, I believe, about loose parts where we dug into that a little bit deeper. But loose parts don't have to be physical objects. And for him, what he was really playing with was the wind. Because the bubbles are great, but look, he's too, he's played with bubbles a lot in his life. But from later conversations with grandma, this was his first outdoor bubble experience. And it turns out, bubbles move a lot differently, a lot more actively when they're outside in a nice subtropical breeze. And so he was really using the bubbles themselves as a way of exploring the movements of the breeze. And that's kind of what we're going to be talking about, about physical objects, or loose parts not having to be physical objects. And I think it's amazing, because this is a way we can help kind of kids explore deeper and increase their understanding of the world around them. So, well, he was using a physical object, the bubbles and the bubble gun, to explore the wind. What he was really exploring was the wind. So loose parts can be concepts. Concepts like, oh, I pushed the wrong button. Concepts like gravity, up, cold, fast, windy, heavy, are all ideas they can explore with physical objects. And so talk about the wind. Now, his experience, there was quite a bit of a decent breeze this particular day. Now, someday he's gonna go outside with his bubbles, and it's not going to be breezy, and the bubbles are going to move differently. And then someday, maybe, if he's lucky enough, Grandma's going to take him outside on a really windy day, and he's going to see how fast the bubbles move in those conditions. And so there's lots of variables in the way we explore these. And so thinking about exploring ideas with physical objects, how do we go about, for example, exploring fast, or heavy, or windy, or gravity, or up, or cold, with physical objects? And so what our job as early learning environment curators becomes in those situations is we decide, okay,
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May 19 202519 mins