Excited that I have finally got out and used the Loose Parts with the children! Have had various sessions with the P1, P4 and P7 pupils with free play, guided play and set tasks. My hypothesis was that free play would suit the P1s better, guided play would be better for the P4s and the P7s would need set tasks for them to achieve best. Although yet to analyse my observations and interview responses fully, I know that this hypothesis has not been proven correct. I have also learnt that getting the children involved in the planning process of how we can use Loose Parts in the school has been really helpful for developing ideas. They have agreed with me on some ideas but have developed or changed others to suit their needs or likes and dislikes more. I found the discussion with children so valuable for where I am in this journey and look forward to sharing the results.

At the point of my last update I was gathering resources to use as Loose Parts. We are now at the point where donations have been coming in to school and I have worked with our Sustainable Squad who are supporting this project to split the resources between our storage sheds within different playgrounds. To help with consistency of my enquiry, we have given the same Loose Parts to all areas however, I expect this to change as we discover what were better resources for certain stages. I have put together my observation sheet and semi-structured interview questions. Both are pictured below. I used elements of creativity and problem solving skills to help break down these skills further to support the observation notes. I don’t want my notes to be restricted by these elements though so will also make general notes and observations so my results are forced into categories. Although we still need more resources, we have enough for me to start my observation and groups so I am looking forward to seeing how the children explore the Loose Parts.

Semi-Structured Interview Questions

Free Play

What did you like about that?

What did you have to think about when you were doing that?

Was anything tricky?

How did you deal with the things that were tricky?

Guided Play

What did you like about that?

What did you have to think about when you were doing that?

Was anything tricky?

How did you deal with the things that were tricky?

Tasked Play

What did you like about that?

What did you have to think about when you were doing that?

Was anything tricky?

How did you deal with the things that were tricky?

Overall

Which task did you enjoy best and why?

What would you like to do more of?

Which one do you think you could learn the most from?