What are the benefits of Tinker Trays?

What Are Tinker Trays?

Tinker trays are a collection of loose parts that spark the interest of children to play and explore. The role of parents, therapists, and teachers is to present the selection of loose parts in the tray. The rest is for the children to engage and play in an imaginative way. To encourage open-ended play, trays with loose parts are found and used in early childhood education settings. They typically contain a mix of natural and man-made materials, such as sticks, stones, shells, buttons, beads, and small objects. Tinker Trays provide children with a wide range of materials used to create and explore in their own way. Kids interact with loose parts in a variety of different ways, including building, constructing, sorting, and organizing. Additionally, children love to use the parts for pretending and role-playing. They are a great way to encourage children to use their imagination and develop important skills like problem-solving and creativity.

Tinker Trays may become an integral part of a learning environment by offering a fun, engaging resource to help kids learn to count, as well as, other educational benefits.

How are Tinker Trays benefit Sensory Play?

Trays full of loose materials and parts are a great tool for encouraging sensory play and creativity in children. Trays filled with a variety of materials are used to explore, create, and imagine.

Sensory play is an important part of a child’s development, as it helps them to learn about the world around them through their senses. Providing children with a variety of materials to touch, see, hear, and manipulate, can help stimulate their senses and support their learning and development.

Collecting, counting, sorting, organizing, displaying, and creating are some of the ways children can use loose parts to learn and engage in open-ended play.

What are the Benefits of Playing with Loose-Parts Trays?

One of the key benefits of these trays is that they encourage children to use their imagination and creativity. The trays are full of a variety of materials, therefore, children are free to explore and create in their own way. This open-ended approach to play allows children to think for themselves, solve problems, and come up with their own ideas.

Another benefit is that they introduce children to loose parts. By incorporating loose parts into their play, children can learn to think outside of the box and to come up with their own solutions to problems.

Overall, Tinker Trays are a fantastic tool for supporting sensory play and creativity in children. They provide children with a wide range of materials to explore and create with, and they can help to stimulate their senses and support their learning and development. Incorporating loose parts and encouraging open-ended play can be a great way to support children’s imagination and creativity.

Loose parts trays are suitable for many methods of education including Montessori and Waldorf.

For ideas on how to play with Tinker Trays, check out the blog about the benefits of Sensory Play.