Top Loose Parts for Open Ended Play!
The holiday season is around the corner, and we want to make sure you have the perfect gift for the children in your life! We have taken the guesswork out of gift giving by letting our team of play experts choose the perfect gifts for children of every age.
You may be asking, what are loose parts? As the name suggests, are loose, tactile materials that children can move around during play and as they explore, allowing them to be creative. They ignite children’s curiosity, capture their interest, and allow for them to be creative and imaginative in how they choose to play! They are open-ended and in the hands of a child can become anything they desire. There is no limit to what they will create and learn.
Why loose parts for learning? Loose parts play encourages children to be creative, they help them develop skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. Loose parts also allow children to understand success and failure as they build and play, discovering what works and what doesn't. They grow children's confidence, as they can choose how to play as there is no right or wrong way.
The point of loose parts is to give children the chance to explore, experiment, learn, and have fun!
Loose Parts Can Help Children Develop the Following Skills:
- Problem Solving
- Engineering
- Creativity
- Concentration
- Hand-eye coordination
- Fine motor development
- Gross motor development
- Language and vocabulary building
- Mathematical thinking
- Scientific thinking
- Literacy
- Social/emotional development
- Collaborative play
The simple, turns into the extraordinary, in the hands of a child. Will a pebble become a rocket ship? A block could be a castle or a mountain! The possibilities are endless.
The toys on this list are more than just a great gift. They all were hand-picked by our in-house play expert who picked them with the intent to inspire your children’s imaginations, help develop early learning skills, and discover their passions because at Scholar’s Choice we believe children deserve the opportunity to achieve their hopes & dreams through play!
Dëna toys are open-ended, multifunctional and modern sensory toys providing endless options for use and play! Use indoors or outdoors for teething, stacking, baking and free play. With colourful shapes and a soft, flexible material, play is always safe and infinitely creative.
The Dëna Rainbows are SO unique as they can inspire play from the beginning. Thanks to its soft material and its design, with dëna Rainbow your baby will begin to stimulate their creativity from day one.They will spend the day experimenting, playing and chewing safely. Fun fact, since they are made of platinum based silicone you can even put the pieces in the dishwasher for easy washing!
Opportunities for learning:
Free play which allows for expression of creativity and ideas
Learn to identify and classify colours
Improve gross motor and manual dexterity abilities as well as their concentration
We carry a collection of the Dena Rainbows so you can pick the perfect one your child will love!
Recommended Age: Birth +
Love what you see? See the other toys in the Dena collection online Here
Can you stack all the forest friends on the tree? This beautiful wooden tree comes with 19 animals and plants to balance, stack on the branches of the tree.
As children play they will be building essential fine motor skills as they place and stack all the animals while practing hand eye coordination and visual comprehension!
Recommended Age: 18 months +
PlayTRAY with lid and removable compartments
If you have little ones, you need the best tools on hand to help them learn and have fun. You need an easy way to set up play that will stimulate their imagination, and enable opportunities for their creativity to run wild! That's why you NEED the PlayTRAY. Designed with little ones in mind the PlayTRAY is a self-contained space to play, create and store all sorts of sensory activities. The PlayTRAY is designed to be used for all sorts of sensory play, sand, water & craft activities and we can't wait to see the activities you set up! It can be used indoors and outdoors!
Need ideas for how you can use your PlayTray for play and learning? No problem, upon purchase you will be emailed a FREE PlayTray ebook full of easy and fun activities.
We are very proud to EXCLUSIVELY offer the PlayTRAY in Canada and truly believe it is an amazing resource for children’s learning and play!
Recommended Age: 12 months +
My Forest Floor
Bring the magic of the forest floor into your home for children to explore and create with this extensive open-ended play tinker tray box for your little one to sort, stack and arrange their woodland treasures. The lid is removable and can be turned around and used as a chalkboard on which to create your forest floor! The wooden compartments can also be removed and the box filled with sand to create a magical woodland play scene.
Set includes: 6 grey flat pebbles, 4 multi-faceted rocks, 3 cone trees, 8 twigs, a snail, a moth, 6 little toadstools, a large toadstool, 10 leaves, 2 acorns, 3 beetles, 4 tunnel pieces, and a bird's egg.
Recommended Age: 3+
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Loose Parts! We created this box with you and your children in mind. The idea of this box is to help you fall in love with loose parts and get started!
What are Loose Parts?
Loose parts as the name suggests, are loose, tactile materials that children can move around during play and as they explore, allowing them to be creative. They ignite children’s curiosity, capture their interest, and allow for them to be creative and imaginative in how they choose to play! They are open-ended and in the hands of a child can become anything they desire. There is no limit to what they will create and learn.
Loose parts play encourages children to be creative, they help them develop skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. Loose parts also allow children to understand success and failure as they build and play, discovering what works and what doesn't. They grow children's confidence, as they can choose how to play as there is no right or wrong way.
The point of loose parts is to give a child the chance to explore, experiment, learn, and have fun!
Contains:
1 Small Wooden Rainbow
4 Mirror Blocks
5 Outdoor Wooden Blocks
6 Rainbow Blocks
9 Jr. Rainbow Pebbles
10 Wooden Peg People
10 Wood Craft Rounds
Recommended Age 3+
Meet the Happy Folk Hotel where 9 different happy folk reside! These charming folks are made from solid wood, colored with a soft water-based stain, they can represent anyone you know.
These little people are perfect for adding to any sort of creative or imaginative play, and can be perched easily on any surface. They are perfect for little hands and for incoporating into your play!
Recommended Age 3+
Wooden Treasures Taster Set 42pcs
This beautiful set of smooth colourful wooden loose part that will enable your child to discover the wonders of learning through play. These simple and intriguing items will bring out your child's naturally inquisitive nature; allowing them to use their limitless imagination to explore ways to incorporate the items into imaginative play and learn about the world around them.
The attractive natural woodgrain can be seen through the colour shade which freely allows for open interpretation, with no 'correct' way of using these objects; the items can be explored and investigated and used in your child's own creative ideas. Perfect for engaging logical thought, stimulating discovery and creativity, developing hand-eye co-ordination and improving fine motor skills. The set can be used to practise counting, colour sorting, sorting and designing patterns and sequences.
Like this set? But want to see the other options? Check out the other sets here
We are so excited to introduce our Bauspiel Loose Parts Box. Bauspiel is a beautiful brand from Germany whose wooden toys distinguish themselves through their high quality and excellent workmanship! All of their blocks are crafted using European timber, mainly beech, alder and lime. The loose parts Baupsiel creates are versatile, unique and can be used in so many different ways. We created this kit to give you a chance to fall in love with their loose parts just as we have!
Box Contains:
-9 Colour Track
-12 X-Bricks
-20 Lucent Cubes
-20 Coloured Triangles
Recommended Age: 3+
Children will have fun with this construction and early learning activity set. The rainbow pebbles are ideal for developing fine motor skills and creative design. How many pebbles can you stack before they topple over? Encourage visual perception, sorting, counting, sequencing, stacking and more!
These pebbles link mathematics and art. It will stimulate children’s imagination and creative thinking skills. They also help to develop fine motor skills and building design as they play! Young learners can copy the activity cards or create their own 2D and 3D objects, buildings and so much more.
Children also learn colors, shape recognition, counting, sorting, classifying, patterning, sequencing, construction and stacking through play.
The pebbles are a wonderful tactile resource made of smooth rubber!
Set includes:
-48 plastic pebbles in 4 sizes and 6 colors
-12 double-sided full-color activity cards
Recommended Age: 3+
Your child will love this wooden rainbow tracing board! Watch as they learn, play and discover through open ended play. This board is perfect for building fine motor skills, sensory play, colour sorting and more. You can use this rainbow tracing board for all kinds of educational activities, here are just a few:
-Colour sorting PomPoms
-Used for sensory play when paired with rainbow rice and play dough
-Practice tracing
-Patterning
Recommended Age: 3+
Little Lands Collection
Little Lands for little hands to create faraway lands! These stone props are ideal for storytelling, and small world play. They include lots of charming detail that will inspire talk and creative scenarios. The stones are not only beautifully etched and engraved but tough as they are made using a durable stone mix, they are robust enough to be used outdoors in water and in messy play, and are easily cleaned after their adventures.
Recommended Ages: 3+
See Little Lands Construction, Little Lands Vehicles, Little Lands Houses, Little Lands Enchanted World, Little Lands Farm, Little Lands Polar, Little Lands Woodland
The Tenderleaf wooden animals are beautiful toys that are prefect for every kind of small world play! The durable long-lasting animals by Tenderleaf Toys make a beautiful addition to any playroom and are a high-quality pieces that can be treasured by many generations.
They are the perfect size for children to play with at home, take to Grandma’s house, or bring along to keep them happy during a car ride. There are endless ways to play with these small wooden figurines, from puppet shows to dollhouses to fitting snugly in pockets for adventures on the go!
WILDLIFE EDUCATION: These animal toys are designed with our children's future in mind. Teach them the wonderful ways of wildlife and the importance of looking after all the world's animals with each different animal!
MADE FOR LITTLE HANDS: Each set comes with a beautiful wooden shelving unit which holds the whole range of animals and has been made with little hands and little purses. The soft, strong wood is perfect for developing touch senses and also inspires colour and shape recognition for little ones.
The shelf can be hung up on your little ones bedroom or nursery wall, meaning it is a super neat place to store your animals after playing with them! The shelves come with their animal range completely included, and you can add animals from our other ranges to the shelves too if you so wish, there is enough space in the shelf to stack a few animals in each compartment! Create your very own amazing animal kingdom and collect them all.
Made from high quality plywood and rubber wood, all the soft animal shapes have been coloured with a soft non-toxic water stain allowing the beauty of the natural wood to show through, whilst giving the pieces a soft tactile quality.
Recommended Ages: 3+
See each of the different animal sets here: Coastal Creatures, Farmyard Animals, Woodland Animals, Polar Animals, Dinosaurs
Wooden Stackable Nesting Blocks Bright Cottage
Spark creative and imaginative play with this Wooden Stackable Nesting Blocks Play Set! These painted pine wood pieces nest and stack into unique shapes. Kids will love the bright classic colors, and the high-quality smooth-edged pieces are easy for little hands to grasp, nest and stack.
A great building toy this open-ended sensory toy helps children build fine motor and cognitive skills, promoting learning through play!
Recommended Ages: 2+
See the entire loose parts collection from Hearthsong here
Wooden Stackable Nesting Blocks Mountain
Spark creative and imaginative play with our 5-Piece Wooden Stackable Nesting Blocks Play Set! These painted pine wood pieces nest and stack into a calming smooth mountain. Kids will love the bright classic colors, and the high-quality smooth-edged pieces are easy for little hands to grasp, nest and stack.
Skill-building play: open-ended, sensory toy helps develop fine motor and cognitive skills, cause & effect, small world play and more!
Recommended Ages: 2+
See the entire loose parts collection from Hearthsong here
This rainbow architect set is a beautiful set of loose parts designed for open ended play and construction! They are beautifully coloured natural beechwood hollow blocks in 4 geometric shapes - squares, rectangles, triangles and arches.
Each group of shapes contains 7 graduated sizes for nesting, in the 7 colours of the rainbow. The inner block in each group is a solid 3D shape.
This wide-ranging enabling loose part set will provide endless possibilities for creativity, construction and imaginative play, engaging children in learning! Using innovation and creativity to build towers, houses or freeform sculptures; using the imagination to design rooms for filling with small world play people or animals; applying mathematical logic to sort counters into the shapes which match by colour, shape or size; learning the geometric properties of common shapes; exploring size and scale; using mathematical terms - larger, smaller, taller, wider etc; and for improving language skills and broadening descriptive vocabulary.
Recommended Ages: 2+
See the entire architect loose parts collection here
