“IN ANY ENVIRONMENT, BOTH THE DEGREE OF INVENTIVENESS AND CREATIVITY, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF DISCOVERY, ARE DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE NUMBER AND KIND OF VARIABLES IN IT.”
Simon Nicholson
Theory of Loose Parts
why loose parts play?
Across New Zealand and around the world, a generation of children are missing out on opportunities to play. Sitting inside on devices, disconnected from nature, and spending the bulk of their time in adult-structured environments, our kids are exhibiting a lack of resilience and increasingly suffering from anxiety and depression.
Meanwhile, the future of humanity and our planet is under threat from mass consumerism. Our landfills are overflowing with discarded plastic goods, because a ‘throw-away’ culture has us believing it’s better to buy something new than repurpose something old.
Junky Monkeys exists to counter these trends, repurposing junk (a.k.a. Loose parts) into resources for creative play and promoting a cultural shift towards reduce, reuse, recycle and a circular economy.
Through our programmes in schools and communities, we aim to:
- Activate play in public spaces and educational settings,
- Engage tamariki, kaiako, and whānau in meaningful waste education, and
- Empower schools and communities to deliver loose parts play experiences.
Together, we can turn trash into taonga, and protect children’s right to play!
What people say about us
Students explored different possibilities in a stress free environment. They took risks and didn’t worry about failures. They were proud to discuss what they were doing/creating with different adults. They did not think about technology, language, vocabulary, process, or product whilst learning. Learning took place as a natural process and the students imagination ran wild.
– Kaiako
This programme reinforced the need for play across our Year 1-8 group. The teachers definitely observed the benefits and are keen to make loose parts play a regular occurrence at our School.
– Kaiako
Can you come back every day?
– student
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