In The Moment Planning

Found objects, and natural resources, or ‘loose parts’ as you may have heard them referred to, lend themselves beautifully to the early years; they allow children further learning opportunities from a sensory perspective along with aiding children in constructing further learning pathways to build on prior knowledge.

For example, a child may be using a feather as a resources in their art work, which then reminds them of the time they found a feather in the park. It wasn’t the same colour? Maybe it was from a different bird? It was a smaller feather. Maybe the bird was smaller? Like the small robin they saw in Grandma’s garden. Grandma puts nuts and seeds out for the birds in her garden. Maybe the birds here would like nuts and seeds? Do all birds like to eat seeds? My brother told me birds eat worms……… which leads to the question

‘Do all birds eat seeds?’

Do you see how the child is constructing and building on his knowledge of birds due to using a feather in his artwork, resulting in a question to clarify his understanding. Our practitioners might respond with, ‘Well, most small birds in this country do enjoy nuts and seeds, but some larger birds feed off other things, like worms, snails, spiders and berries. Some bigger birds even eat mice!’ You can see how the conversation is building on the child’s prior knowledge. Depending on where the child the takes this it may result in some more exploration of the topic. Thinking about how we could encourage some birds into our nursery garden? Thinking about what foods other animals eat/ what foods we eat? Talking about dislikes and likes of bugs. The size of animals. etc etc