Visitors to HMS know that our playground is a special place. We love our shade trees, flowering shrubs, the playhouse, playscape, the mud box and the “stage” (photo, right). We eat lunch outdoors and watch the squirrels and grackles watching us.
While our classroom has a fair amount of structure, our playground subscribes to what is known as “loose parts” that let the children’s imaginations run wild. Loose parts are everyday objects that can be manipulated and moved around for play–often imaginary play. Whether it’s a piece of tree bark, a pot and pan set or animals to play with, they can carry it around to play. Kids move, right? So the object they play with should, too. The object is just a trigger for their minds to wander, and wander they do to their hearts’ content.
The tree bark can be a computer, phone, cookie sheet, book, or any number of modes of transportation (a plane, train, boat…). You might think that toy tiger is just a tiger? It can also be a grandma, a baby sister, a super
hero. Tigers may be hungry, sad or excited to play with a friend. We have a dozen full-sized tires that can be moved around and climbed on. They can be a house, rings for throwing practice, lined up to become a train, or part of an obstacle course. Rainy day? There are even more possibilities since we can sculpt the mud into, well, whatever! Hasn’t rained for a while? Let’s open up the huge sandbox and bring in the loose parts.
Indeed, our playground is as open-ended as the minds of our little Texans.
