Learning Experience Plan #5

(Done concurrently with the Week Plan- See CP Parts 3 & 4)

Your Name Age Group Date
Tyrah Urie BP

Title of Activity “Loose Parts”

The intended purpose of this activity is to use open ended loose parts to
create a structure.

Standard: New Hampshire Early Learning Standards

Domain: Creative Expression and Aesthetic Appreciation
Strand: Exploration and Creation of Artistic Works : Appreciation of and
Response to the Creation of other and the Natural World
Construct: Invention and imagination ; sense of joy and wonder
Indicator of Progress: Act out elaborate pretend play scenarios with objects,
create representational and abstract art, and play with musical instruments
individually and with peers ; Show interest and respect for their creative work
of self and others, and share experiences and ideas about art and creative
expression.

Intended Purpose (the objective of the activity)

Children will engage in the opportunity to explore, invent and create their
own structures any way they want with whatever loose parts were brought in
by them and their families in a novel way demonstrating flexibility, creativity,
and new possibilities.

Background Research
Content- What is a recyclable? – Items that can be made into new products
including cans that hold food and drinks, steel used to build skyscrapers,
cardboard boxes glass jars and bottles, newspaper and office paper, plastic,
and even playground equipment.
What are loose part? – Loose parts mean alluring, beautiful found objects and
materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change while
they play.

Children’s Inquiry
 Why is this activity appropriate and relevant to this group of children, now?
This activity is appropriate and relevant to this group of children now, because
I’ve been noticing the children engaging in activities using types of loose parts
to make different things like loose magazine parts to make collages, plastic to
make structures, etc. I thought incorporating an activity that the children have
been into but expanding it to families and having the children work on the
structure for a couple weeks adding materials would be a great idea.

What questions does this activity allow children to explore?

-What materials should we bring in?
-What is recycling?
-What are loose parts?

Provocation / Changes to the Environment

How will you engage children in this activity? How will you activate their prior
knowledge? This is a general sense of what you will be doing.
-To engage children in this activity I will start at circle time by telling the
children that I have noticed some of them working/building with recycled
materials! At circle time I will then bring out a few of the materials and have
the children one by one come up and sort the materials based on either
plastic, cardboard or ribbon into paper bags. This will just get children thinking
about the different materials and also engage them in the conversation with
some of the things that they brought in as a family.
What will you say or do (questions, dialogue)? This is more specific; details.
At circle time:
: I noticed that some of you have been working with materials building
different sorts of things. I decided for this activity that we bring more of those
materials in and build our own personal structures.
:I will bring out the materials and ask the children if they know what types of
these materials are
- *wait time (give students a chance to think and respond).
: Does anyone know what these are?
- *wait time (give students a chance to think and respond).
: We will be working as artists with come of these recycled materials/ loose
parts that you and your families brought in to build our own structures.
: The goal of our structures will be to use any material you like to make a 3D
structure and after we are done building, we will design them!
- *wait time (give students a chance to think and respond).
: It is important as artists to know that it takes more than one day to build a
structure. When we are done for the day, we can always come back the next
day and keep working.
: Today we are going to start building, but this activity can last us up to two
weeks!

Closure/transitions/clean up?
-To close the immediate experience I will tell the children that artists spend
multiple days working on their art work. I will tell the children that even if they
feel like they are done today, they can always come back and work the next
day! The cleanup process will be mainly picking up the workspace. Because
the materials get reused as new friends come to the activity, I wont expect
the children to pick them up as the same materials will be used moments later.

Positive Guidance and Individualization

Managing the Flow of Activity & Safety Considerations
-Because there will be other activities happening at the same time as mine, I
will let the children come over to the choice whenever they would like,
however regulating it to only 4 friends at a time at the table as the space may
become easily crowded with all the materials out.

Proactive Strategies
-The strategies I will use to be proactive during the activity will be to explain to
the children that when they arrive the goal of the activity and to specify that
its not about how fast or how many materials we can throw on our structure
boards, and that it as an artist it takes time to build, we aren’t just done in a
day! I will tell the children that if they are choosing to be done, they can come
back the next day to add on!

Reactive Strategies
-The reactive strategies I will try and manage will be to tell the children that
even if they choose to add only a couple times that it is ok but that they will
come back the next day and add onto their structure. This may be hard to
gage as the children may be feeling a different way in what to do for choice
time the next day, really not wanting to work on their structure and add on. I
will encourage them to come back and the next day make sure I check in
and see if they would like to add on or decorate, whatever stage they may
be in.

Supporting Each Child- Adaptations and Individualization- include at least 3

specific children
AL: I will try and get the child more interested in the 3D materials first more
than the decorative ones to try and reach the goal of a 3D structure and
introduce the decorative materials after.
 AD: I will specifically focus on getting the child to stay at the activity for longer
than usual, and then have them come back to the activity the day after and
hopefully keep them coming back until the whole process was over.
JP: I will try and have the child explore all the materials and use a variety of
the while building. Steering the child away from using the same material over
and over will open up the child’s creativity and imagination.

Materials and Quantity (List what you need, how much, & location in classroom)
 Card board squares
 Toilet paper rolls
 Paper towel rolls
 Ribbon
 Beads
 Paint
 Pom pom’s
 Glue
 Card board boxes
 Scissors
 Yarn
 Flowers

Spiraling: Intentionally Revisiting and Extending the Learning

Spiraling
How will you help children make connections to this question, topic, idea, or
skill after the initial introduction/activity period of the LEP? How will you
intentionally come back and bring this up for children again (and again)?
-When helping children make connections to the idea/topic of the activity I
will tell them that I noticed how in the mornings they have been working with
some recycled materials working on building different things that came to
mind. I will also mention to the children that they have been learning and
working with a lot of artists and that this activity is going to give them the
chance to be their own artists! For an intentional revisit of the activity after the
first few days of the activity before the decorating part, I explained to the
children how artists typically name their work and that it is important that while
the children are working on their activity decorating, they should be thinking
about a name for their structure!

Additional activities
What additional opportunities could you offer to children so they could
engage again with this question/topic/idea/skill? How could you build upon
this activity to extend their learning and understanding? Describe an activity
or a way you could extend the activity you just did.
-A way I could offer this activity to the children in sort of the same way but
different was to have the whole class work on a community structure out of all
the materials. Having the children work on a community structure and
challenge them to see how many different materials we could put on it and
how tall we could make it would get the children working cooperatively and
creatively with classmates for an end goal. This would make the activity a little
less open ended but keep the concept of 3D structure building with the loose
parts.

Concept Map (use separate sheet)

References:
Wheatley, E.C., Cantor, P., & Carver, J. (2015). New Hampshire early
learning standards birth through five. Concord, NH: NH Department of Health
and Human services.

Daly, L., & Beloglovsky, M. (2014). Loose parts: Inspiring play in young children.
 ASSESSMENT LEP 5
This is your Documentation Panel with Copies of Work Samples/
Photos of the Process of Exploration

(Try to include photos of the same 2 children as you have been gathering
documentation on over the semester. You can and are encouraged to include
more than just those 2 children in the final documentation panel.)

Analysis: How does your documentation panel make children’s learning and
thinking visible? How does it support the standard and objective you
intended? How effective was it?

My documentation panel makes children’s learning and thinking visible in the

sense that for those who aren’t physically in the room seeing these children
work, they are able to see the process of their work. Through the
documentation, one is able to see the children’s imagination, creativity and
the process within them doing so which supports the standard and objective
intended being creative expression. I enjoyed this form of assessment the most
because I really enjoyed seeing the children in action through the photos.
Being the facilitator of the activity, I may have missed some of the moments
captured in the photo and the ability to look back and see was very
rewarding. Rewarding not particularly in the sense for me, but to see the faces
before they were blurred and to see that excitement of them putting a piece
on with glue and it actually sticks after the 100th time trying, or the focus they
have sticking a tricky piece on, and seeing their work evolving throughout
time is most valuable part of a photo in an assessment like this making it very
effective in my opinion.
 LEP 5 Reflection
1. Describe the experience you intended and then compare it to what
actually happened. What surprised you?
 The experience I intended for this activity was for the children to work
with the loose parts materials in an open ended way, over a period
of time to create their own structures. For the most part this is what
actually happened in the activity, which I was surprised about. A lot
of the time when you work with children this age on building
structures and things of this nature, they tend to work on it for a small
chunk of time and are done with it, for good! With this activity I
explained to children that art work takes a while and even though
we may be done for that day, we can always come back to it and
add on. I was very surprised to see that ALL of the children came
back more for more than one day and most came back multiple
days in a room to ‘add on’.

2. What other domains, constructs, and strands did you discover this connects
to?
 The other domains, constructs, and strands that I discovered this
connects to would be in the cognitive development branch. I found
that cognitive development, approaches to learning connected to
this activity as the children were showing executive function as they
were stay focused for longer periods of time, returning back to the
activity, took the initiative carrying out their own plans and persist
until the goal is achieved. The ability for the children to create
sophisticated structures alone, using various constructive materials
directly related to the creative expression strand in the activity but
can also to cognitive development.
3. What did you learn about the children as learners? Describe 2 experiences
of children who participated in the activity.
 One thing I learned about one of the children who participated in
the activity was that they were very independent and persistent. The
child had their mind set on getting something to work on their own.
As this child in particular was working on their structure, they were
trying to push a skinny wooden stick through a thick Styrofoam block.
I could see the child persistently working on trying to shove it through
the block and there was no sign of them giving up. Trying it every
which way, the child couldn’t seem to get the stick into the
Styrofoam. I ended up asking the child if they would like some help,
and they responded “no, I can do it”. The child struggled and huffed
and puffed with angry facial expressions, however within the next
couple minutes the child had got it in! This showed the child was very
 independent minded and persistent when it came to their own
creativity and learning.
 In the opposite spectrum, one thing I learned about another child as
a learner during the activity was that they were a very dependent
learner. Right from the start this child was asking me what materials
they should use for their structure. For most of the time while the child
was creating they were either asking others or myself for ideas of
what/where they should put materials or looking at other children at
the activity were doing and trying to copy them. These observations
may have told me that as a learner in the creative sense the child
may not have developed those imagination/creative ideas that
other children might have.

4. What did you learn about yourself as a facilitator of learning?

 What I learned about myself as a facilitator of learning is that I am
very into those open ended activities where the options and ideas
are wide and far and there really aren’t any restrictions. I found that
it is hard for me to sit there without trying to jump in and help, share
my ideas, or help them glue that one piece on! As children came to
this activity I found myself itching to help them. As a facilitator in
activity like this, the task for me is to facilitate and to chime in when
the children have tried, almost to the point of struggling until I jump in
and help. Along with coming up with ideas for the structure, it was
hard for me to not say things like “oh put this here” or “this is a good
material, it should go there”, otherwise, the children aren’t learning
those pieces and indicating their progress in the standard can be
difficult as your doing most of the creative work for them.

5. How did the adaptation/individualization strategies work? Describe 1

experience of how it worked (or didn’t). What might work even better to
support individual learning needs?
 The adaptation/individualization strategies that I found worked was
trying to get one of the children to stay at the activity for longer than
usual and getting them to come back to the activity even after the
first day. What might work even better is to give the child a timer to
work with that are in the classrooms. This might keep the child there,
no longer than they want but a specific time. After the timer was to
go out, I could just explain to the child that the next day she can add
more pieces for the amount of the timer. This may help the child not
feel like they is being held hostage.
6. How did your positive guidance strategies work (proactive and reactive)?
What did you notice about the language you used?
 My positive guidance strategies worked pretty well with the children.
Telling them that it takes artists more than a day to work/build a
structure really sunk in the children’s head. After telling the children
this, ALL of the children came back to work on their structure another
day. The language that hooked the children I think is that I put them
in the view of an artist, making the children “preschool artists”. It
made them want to come back and really take the time on their
work.

7. Reflect on the assessment (documentation panel-photos and work

samples). What was the experience like trying to document and facilitate
the experience knowing the intention was to “make learning visible” for
families? Did it make it easier/more challenging to stay in the moment with
children? How did it go?
 The experience was so much fun!! Taking pictures of the children in
action during the activity was so engaging for me. I felt like a mom
taking pictures of their newborn child!! Knowing that the intention
was to make learning visible it was easy to know what kind of
pictures I wanted captured. The other practicum student and I were
lucky to have our CT there to take pictures if we were engaged in
the activity with the children keeping us in the moment with the
children for a lot of the activity. Knowing that the goal of the activity
was to develop the children’s ability to use their imagination and be
creative, it was easier for me to take those plans and make the
learning as visible as possible.

8. How did this assessment strategy work for helping you gain an
understanding of children’s learning? What would you do differently next
time?
 I think that this strategy helped me gain an understanding of the
children’s learning in the way that I could see their facial expressions
while working and the process that they were going through. To be
able to imagine in my own head what was going through in their
brain through the photos was kind of cool to have happen. Seeing a
child very focused through their image may show that they are very
determined with a set goal with their work. One thing I would do
differently in with the assessment, would be taking a short snippet
video. Although this can’t be documented on a panel, it would be
cool to see their faces for longer than that one movement, or step in
 their process or maybe even some of the language they are using
while working on their structure.

9. How did your “intentional revisiting” of this experience go? What did you
do or say and how did children respond?
 After bringing the children to circle time and explaining to them that
artists typically come up with names for their work, I think it went very
well. It seemed to get the children really thinking about their work
and most of them had given me a name to their structure when they
were completely finished. It was interesting to see the children that
seemed as if they actually had been thinking about the name while
they were working and those who may have thought of the name
on the spot when they were asked!

10. What would you do differently if you could have a “do-over”?

 What I would do differently if I had a do over, would be to introduce
the materials step by step as they go along. The first day, I put out all
the materials needed to build and to decorate. This was a mistake,
as the intention was for the children to build a 3D structure that goes
up”, when they saw the decorative materials like the ribbon, the
wallpaper, tissue paper, beads, et. it was really all they wanted to
use defeating the 3D idea. It was hard for a bit to get them back
onto the idea of using the paper towel rolls, the containers, and
boxes, etc.