Ultimate Outdoor Loose Parts List for Spring!
As an outdoor educator in Canada, Spring can provide a refreshing energy boost and new found motivation to get outside and play. Loose parts can be a great way to spend warm spring afternoons outside or long summer afternoons. These loose parts will work great in your backyard, schoolyard, local park or other outdoor space. The last thing I love about loose parts is the nature of these items makes them affordable and easy to source. Send this list to parents, friends and family and you will have a supply within no time.
What is a Loose Part?
Loose parts are open-ended objects children can use to build, create and play. They are often recycled natural or found materials. They don't have a fixed purpose and can be used in a multitude of ways. We often can see the value of loose parts when we laugh about how children prefer the box the toy came in over the actual toy. This is because the box is open-ended and can change to be whatever the child's imagination desires it to be while the toy might have a fixed purpose and lose its entertainment value once its purpose has been explored or discovered.
Found Items
These are items that you may have laying around in excess, or can easily find at a second-hand shop, or ask friends and family to donate.
Metal Utensils
Metal Pots and Pans
Colanders
Muffin Tins
Cake Pans
Rubber Ice Cube Trays
Cookie Sheets
Tarps
Baskets
Rope
Metal Funnels
Tent Pegs
Small Cement Blocks
Wooden Mallet
Spray Bottles
Small Garden Tools
Pipettes and/or Droppers
Ribbon
Artifical Flowers
Water Pump and 5 Gallon Water Jug
Chalk
Gardening Shovels
Wheel Barrow
Pop Tubes
Recycled Items
These are items that you keep from your everyday recycling, they are also things recycled from building projects/ or other more commercial uses.
Perforated Pipe
Drainage Pipes
PVC Pipe and Connectors
5 Gallon Buckets
Lumber Scraps
Plywood Scraps
Rubber Tubing
Nursery Pots
Pallets
Empty Yogurt, Sour Cream, or Other Containers
Ice Cream Pails
Milk Crates
Condiment Bottles
Bike Rims
Bike Tires
Small Car Tires
Lattice Scraps
Wooden or Plastic Spools Large and Small
Natural Items
These are items found in nature
Pine Cones
Stumps
Logs
Sticks Large and Small
Rocks
Ice in Various Shapes/ Colours
Cut Flowers
Coloured Water ( use liquid water colours, or food colouring to dye water)
Leaves, Dandelions or Other Plentiful Natural Elements
Share this List with friends, or co-workers and bring your outdoor play to the next level this spring. We love seeing others get inspired, tag us in all your awesome outdoor play on social media @playcreativeseeds or join one of our outdoor play programs for more inspiration and ideas. We hope this helps with new outdoor play ideas all year long.
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