I decided to create a hat with magazine paper as it allowed me to easily move and be flexible with the paper not matter what. I found that the only way the hat would stay in the right position was if i put sticky tape on it to hold it down. 

When making the paper hat i felt a sense of achievement and freedom as paper really does allow you to move and create anything you want to within many limitations.

Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. 

Loose parts can be natural or synthetic. In a preschool outdoor environment we can provide an array of loose parts for use in play such as stones, stumps, sand, gravel, fabric, twigs, wood, pallets, balls, buckets, baskets, crates, boxes, logs, stones, flowers, rope, tyres, balls, shells and seedpods.

Junk stuff and loose parts can basically make and create anything an individual can think of. A stick, for example, may become a fishing rod near real or a tool to nudge a football that is stuck in a tree. 

Junk and loose parts can be thrown, floated, snapped, pinged, bent, hidden, added to a pile, burnt, tied to something else, split, catapulted or discarded.

I really enjoyed learning about junk stuff and loose parts as I didn't realise how much things you can make and how children allow there imagine to make and design absolutely anything.  

For me, the stories that the clay holds and memories that I remember is when I was younger I used to play with clay and design/make anything I could think of. As a child I was automatically naturally fascinated, motivated, and empowered to keep experimenting.

Working with clay is so different to work with junk stuff and loose parts as with clay it is natural and with junk parts it’s kind of everything and not really natural materials. With clay you can manipulate it better than what you can do with loose parts and junk stuff.