Ropes make for one of the best loose parts’ play in preschool! Watch the next video:
loose parts
Pop-up play for toddlers with loose parts
Loose parts like pipes, tubes, tires, balls of any kind, all are priceless tools for never ending play in a preschool.
Children love to create the most unusual type of connections between the objects and explore their physical and imaginative limits.
Boxes everywhere!
Suddenly, large and small boxes appeared in toddlers’ classroom. What could we do with them?
We turned them into sofas, exactly like in the stories we read. We imagined sailing in the sea and boxes were transformed into boats!
We played “hide and seek” and we found unique ways to hide ourselves inside the boxes. We had fun, we played and we learned! We got familiar with special notions such us “in and out”. We practiced our gross and our fine motor skills.
Last but not least, we learned to share and to wait for our turn! We became more sociable and friendly. We came closer and bonded more!
(by Evangelia Nteka, teacher in toddlers’ class in Athens)
Pop up basketball play in kindergarten
“Let’s play basketball” someone said… And so, kindergarten kids just constructed a pop up basket from used tires!
They arranged by themselves a shooting order and patiently waited for their turn. They were little puzzled about how to get the ball out of this basket and needed to come up with some original solutions.
Through this spontaneous yard play, kindergarten children accomplished a bunch of educational milestones by themselves, just being based on pleasure and joy! Priceless….
(by Ioanna Eleftheriou & Stavroula Gaoutsi, teachers in our Athens kindergarten)
Loose parts play for babies
Babies in preschool love playing with life-derived loose parts! Fantastic sensory play with messy stuff, assisting them to discover the world.
(by Maria Gryllaki, teacher in babies class in Athens)
Balloon powered cars
Creating a table soccer from recycled loose parts
A wonderful journey for pre-K class triggered by a visit to a Greek living art legend
Yesterday Sunday July 3, it was the summer party day for toddlers, post-toddlers and pre-K class. Our parties are always free play sessions, based in stimuli and projects children have been engaged the past months.
Pre-K class had the unique chance this year to visit one of the last living Greek art legends, the sculptor Mrs. Natalia Mela. It was such a moving experience for everybody!
After that, whole class entered into a fantastic journey in sculpturing by utilizing real life items, exactly like Mrs. Mela has been doing in her life!
By the use of everyday loose parts and other elements, our children created in class a number of fantastic artworks…
…and enjoyed a wonderful 3-month project.
So, it was normal to include this experience in summer party and connect their play to the sculpturing project. They worked in couples: one was the sculptor and the other was the sculpture! See the video:
Τhis is what life-derived learning is all about: Encouraging children to master unique lifetime experiences and then allowing them to build their own worlds.
2016 pre-Ks developed a strong love-for-sculpturing DNA, for life….
Playing with corks and bottles
(video by Evangelia Nteka, teacher in toddlers class in Athens)
Hula hoops for babies
Hula hoops turn into an excellent type of sensory play in babies’ class!
(by Maria Gryllaki, teacher in babies class in Athens)
Life-derived Learning 