کودکان

Early childhood education is a crucial stage in preparing children to face further levels of schooling. One important aspect to be developed is naturalistic intelligence, which refers to the ability to recognize, differentiate, and appreciate the natural environment. This study aims to explore how teachers can enhance the naturalistic intelligence of children aged 5–6 years at Al Falah Islamic Kindergarten, Limbur Tembesi, Bathin VIII District, Sarolangun Regency through the use of natural materials. Employing a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation. The findings reveal that teachers play a central role in designing lesson plans semester programs, weekly lesson plans, and daily lesson plans that incorporate natural materials as learning media. Teachers also prepare items such as seeds, soil, stones, and vegetables, while instilling habits of caring for plants and maintaining cleanliness in the school environment. In conclusion, the structured and consistent use of natural materials fosters children’s naturalistic intelligence and nurtures environmental awareness from an early age.

We examine whether a top-up school grant for Ethiopia's emerging regions, introduced under GEQIP-E in 2018/19, narrowed mathematics learning gaps. Difference-in-differences estimates using Grade 4 data from the RISE Ethiopia survey (2018/19–2021/22) show relative gains of 0.42–0.52 standard deviations, largest among rural and poorer children. Results hold with regional controls, gain scores, school-level models and school fixed effects, but shrink under region-specific trends. About half of each gain reflects emerging regions avoiding a post-2018 decline elsewhere, so the estimates are upper bounds for the top-up alone. School leadership, community participation and teacher knowledge appear to be key channels.

این پژوهش بررسی می‌کند که آیا اعطای کمک‌هزینه تکمیلی به مدارس در مناطق در حال ظهور اتیوپی، که در سال تحصیلی ۲۰۱۸/۱۹ تحت برنامه GEQIP-E معرفی شد، شکاف‌های یادگیری ریاضیات را کاهش داد یا خیر. برآورد‌های تفاوت-در-تفاوت‌ها با استفاده از داده‌های پایه چهارم از نظرسنجی RISE Ethiopia (۲۰۱۸/۱۹–۲۰۲۱/۲۲) نشان‌دهنده کسب‌کردن‌های نسبی معادل ۰.۴۲ تا ۰.۵۲ انحراف معیار است که بیشترین میزان آن در میان کودکان روستایی و فقیرتر مشاهده شد. نتایج با کنترل‌های منطقه‌ای، نمرات کسب‌کردنی، مدل‌های سطح مدرسه و اثرات ثابت مدرسه پابرجا هستند، اما تحت روندهای خاص منطقه‌ای کاهش می‌یابند. حدود نیمی از هر کسب‌کردن ناشی از آن است که مناطق در حال ظهور از افت پس از سال ۲۰۱۸ که در سایر مناطق رخ داد، در امان ماندند؛ بنابراین این برآورد‌ها کران‌های بالایی برای کمک‌هزینه تکمیلی به تنهایی محسوب می‌شوند. به نظر می‌رسد رهبری مدرسه، مشارکت جامعه و دانش معلمان کانال‌های کلیدی باشند.

Free play is one of the few contexts in which children independently organise their social lives, providing a particularly relevant setting for examining how peer culture is produced and negotiated in everyday interaction. This study explored how preschool children shape peer culture through rules, social relationships, inclusion and exclusion, and shared meaning-making. A focused ethnography was conducted with 21 children aged 3 years 9 months to 7 years 2 months in an established mixed-age preschool group in Croatia. The observational period lasted one month and included 17 observation days. Data collected through observation, field notes, and four focus groups were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings indicate that children independently initiate and sustain play, jointly negotiate rules and roles, and create shared symbolic meanings. Group belonging is continually reaffirmed through participation, while temporary forms of exclusion were observed in different interactional contexts, including responses to disruption and restrictions on participation. Educator mediation occurred in some situations in which children did not resolve disagreements independently. The findings position children as competent social actors whose peer culture constitutes a meaningful form of social life and provide contextual insight into how these processes unfold within an established mixed-age preschool group.

This community service initiative aims to provide a platform for students to actualize their religious potential and to strengthen their religious literacy and character through an Islamic Religious Education (PAI) Performance. The activity employed a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, encompassing planning, action, and reflection (evaluation). It was held from September 10–16, 2026, at the Ki Hajar Dewantara Building in Aikmel District, East Lombok, involving 32 elementary schools and 143 students comprising 65 speech contestants, 44 Quran recitation participants, and 34 PAI Olympiad competitors. The results indicate that the three competition categories provided avenues for demonstrating religious capabilities through communication, Quranic recitation skills, and mastery of PAI knowledge. The event also fostered traits such as discipline, responsibility, self-confidence, perseverance, adherence to rules, and sportsmanship through the experience of competition. Future initiatives should focus on sustained guidance and systematic evaluation to measure the development of students' religious literacy and character in a more targeted and continuous manner.

Problem-solving skills are essential to develop in early childhood so that children can identify problems, consider alternatives, and determine solutions independently. However, teacher-centered learning may limit children's opportunities to explore and experiment with different problem-solving strategies. This study aims to describe the implementation of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) approach using loose parts materials and the development of early childhood problem-solving skills. A qualitative descriptive method was employed at RA Nurhayati, Medan Tembung, involving teachers and 30 children aged 5–6 years. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation, with credibility supported by triangulation of techniques and sources. The findings indicate that constructing a bridge for toy cars provided opportunities for children to identify problems, select materials, design solutions, test alternatives, revise constructions, and evaluate outcomes. Children also engaged in experimentation, communication, collaboration, and creative material use. These findings suggest that the STEAM approach using loose parts can support the development of early childhood problem-solving skills through active, contextual, and child-centered learning experiences. ABSTRAK Keterampilan pemecahan masalah (problem solving) penting dikembangkan sejak usia dini agar anak mampu mengenali permasalahan, mempertimbangkan alternatif, dan menentukan solusi secara mandiri. Namun, pembelajaran yang masih berpusat pada guru dapat membatasi kesempatan anak untuk bereksplorasi dan mencoba berbagai strategi penyelesaian masalah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan penerapan pendekatan Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) berbasis media loose parts serta perkembangan keterampilan pemecahan masalah anak usia dini. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode deskriptif di RA Nurhayati, Kecamatan Medan Tembung, dengan melibatkan guru dan 30 anak usia 5–6 tahun. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi, serta diperiksa melalui triangulasi teknik dan sumber. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kegiatan merancang jembatan untuk mobil mainan memberikan kesempatan kepada anak untuk mengidentifikasi masalah, memilih bahan, merancang solusi, mencoba alternatif, memperbaiki konstruksi, dan mengevaluasi hasil. Anak juga menunjukkan keterlibatan dalam eksperimen, komunikasi, kolaborasi, dan penggunaan material secara kreatif. Dengan demikian, pendekatan STEAM berbasis media loose parts berpotensi mendukung perkembangan keterampilan pemecahan masalah melalui pengalaman belajar yang aktif, kontekstual, dan berpusat pada anak.

Children draw on multiple sources of information during word learning, including speaker testimony and lexical expectations. Yet, little is known about how these cues jointly influence children’s ability to learn new words. The present study examined the combined effect of speaker accuracy and mutual exclusivity (ME) on short-term retention of label-object associations in 4- to 7-year-old monolingual English speaking children. Children were presented novel and familiar object pairs, and were taught novel labels by either an accurate speaker (one who previously labeled familiar objects correctly) or an inaccurate speaker (one who previously labeled familiar objects incorrectly). Novel labels were introduced under two conditions: Align-with-ME (speakers labeled the novel object with novel names) and Conflict-with-ME (speakers labeled the familiar object with novel names, conflicting with ME). Results showed that children retained novel labels for novel objects from both accurate and inaccurate speakers when speaker testimony aligned with ME expectations. This suggests that children are open to learning novel words from speakers regardless of their prior accuracy and may also draw on other available cues, such as label–object co-occurrences, during learning. However, when speaker testimony violated ME expectations, children performed poorly, possibly due to difficulty disambiguating between speaker testimony and their existing lexical knowledge. Together, these findings suggest that children’s short-term retention of label–object associations is supported when available cues align, irrespective of speaker accuracy status. These associations, however, become less robust when ME and speaker cues provide conflicting information.

Purpose This longitudinal study examined the development of complex syntax in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) from prekindergarten (PK) to 3rd grade. We evaluated syntactic complexity and grammaticality using Subordination Index (SI) and ungrammaticality (UG), overall subordinate clause use using the percentage of complex utterances, and subordinate clause-type development (nominal, adverbial, and relative clauses) in English and Spanish. Method Fifty-four bilingual children (39 typically developing TDL, 15 DLD) completed narrative retells in English and Spanish in PK, 1st, and 3rd grade. Language samples were analyzed using SALT-derived SI and UG measures, and utterances were coded for subordinate clause presence and type. Linear mixed models examined the effects of Grade and Group separately by language and outcome. Results Both groups showed developmental increases in syntactic complexity and subordination across grades, but patterns differed by language. In English, TDL and DLD children showed broadly similar growth, with no significant group differences in SI, overall subordinate clause use, or clause-type production. In Spanish, the heritage language, group differences were more pronounced. TDL children showed significant gains in overall subordination and nominal clause use, whereas children with DLD showed limited growth after 1st grade. Clause-type analyses revealed reduced growth and lower diversity of subordinate clauses in Spanish among children with DLD, particularly for nominal clauses. Conclusions Complex syntax developed in both groups across languages; however, Spanish showed greater vulnerability than English, particularly for children with DLD. Clause-type analyses revealed group differences not fully captured by global syntactic measures, highlighting the importance of examining complex syntax in the heritage language. This study provides longitudinal evidence of distinct syntactic trajectories across the two languages in bilingual children with and without DLD.

Bullying remains a concern at SDN Sindangsono because teasing and name-calling occur in student interactions, while students’ understanding of the forms of bullying is still limited. This community service activity aimed to describe bullying prevention education through a participatory approach for third- and fourth-grade students. The activity involved 64 students, consisting of 34 third-grade and 30 fourth-grade students, and included an initial question-and-answer session, presentation of learning materials, an educational video, discussion, sharing session, written reflection, oral evaluation, and a joint commitment. Evaluation was conducted through the initial question-and-answer session and oral evaluation. At the beginning of the activity, students’ responses were more focused on physical bullying. Fifteen students (23.4%) voluntarily stated that they had engaged in actions they understood as bullying, while all participants stated that they had experienced feeling bullied, mainly through teasing and name-calling. After the activity, students’ responses began to include verbal, social, and social media-related forms of bullying, accompanied by reflective responses regarding peer interactions. All participants also took part in a joint commitment to prevent bullying. The activity indicated a broader understanding of bullying, the emergence of reflection, and student participation in bullying prevention.

Aims and background: The sleep-wake cycle and sleep consolidation are essential to children's growth and development.There is a paucity of studies on the sleep characteristics and the effect of electronic media on them in healthy Indian infants and toddlers.The objectives were to assess the sleep characteristics of healthy Indian infants and toddlers and to examine the impact of electronic media on them.Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study at a tertiary center in India, among healthy children aged 3-36 months.Those with concurrent illness (e.g., gastroenteritis, respiratory illness) were excluded.A Hindi version of the Revised Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ-R) was used to assess sleep patterns.Results: A total of 100 children were enrolled during the study period; their median (IQR) age was 12.1 (3.5, 18) months, with most of them being males (74%).The median (IQR) total sleep duration was 11 (10.0,13.3) hours.Electronic media exposure was noted in 83 (83%) children.Of them, 27 (32.5%)children were exposed to ≥1 hour/day.There was no significant difference in sleep duration, night awakenings, or wakefulness between media-exposed and media-unexposed groups in children.Similarly, there was no significant effect of media exposure on sleep characteristics.Conclusion: Sleep duration in infants and toddlers was below the international recommendation.A majority of children had exposure to electronic media, and one-third had exposure of at least 1 hour.Approximately three-fourths of parents didn't perceive the child's sleep problems.Clinical significance: There is an urgent need to routinely evaluate sleep characteristics in infants and toddlers and to increase awareness of sleep hygiene and media exposure among parents.

Executive function (EF) is foundational for school readiness, mental health, and social adaptation. Although cross-national studies document cultural variation in EF, less is known about whether EF differs across ethnic groups within the same national and educational context. In China, Yi, Bai, and Naxi children may differ in home language, childrearing practices, and educational beliefs, making them informative for examining universal and context-specific patterns of EF development. This study examined Executive Function (EF) development in a sample of 190 Chinese ethnic children (Yi, Bai, Naxi; 115 boys, 75 girls) aged 4–6 years. These findings revealed that, (1) Overall EF scores were highest for Bai children, followed by Naxi children, and than Yi children. (2) For inhibition control (IC), at ages 4 and 5, Bai and Naxi children performed significantly better than Yi children, whereas no significant differences were observed among the three ethnic groups at age 6. (3) For cognitive flexibility (CF), Bai and Naxi children are significantly better than Yi children. On the size, color, and shape sub-dimensions, pass rates were highest for Bai children, followed by Naxi and then Yi children; on the quantity sub-dimension, pass rates were highest for Naxi children, followed by Bai and then Yi children. (4) For working memory (WM), at ages 4 and 6, the ranking of scores across the three ethnic groups showed that Bai children obtained the highest scores, followed by Naxi children and than Yi children; at age 5, Bai children scored significantly higher than Naxi and Yi children. These findings contribute to theories of EF development by revealing both age-related convergence and cross-ethnic variation, and they inform culturally responsive early childhood education and intervention.

The purpose of this action research study was to explore how humorous science books can be purposefully integrated into elementary science instruction to enhance student engagement and conceptual understanding. Participants included nineteen second-grade students, ages seven to eight. The study examined the impact of teacher-led, intentional humor embedded in science texts featuring jokes, playful language, and a narrative voice. Data were collected through pre- and post-surveys assessing students’ understanding of grade-level science concepts, as well as their interest in and enjoyment of science learning. Results indicated that students responded positively to humorous science texts and demonstrated gains in content knowledge. These results suggest that humor can serve as an effective instructional strategy and that engaging, humorous science books can be a meaningful tool in elementary science education.

The “My First Pages” project was launched by a local authority in Braga, northern Portugal, with the initial goal of fostering early contact with books and children’s literature among children aged 0 to 10, encouraging parental involvement in promoting family reading habits. Implemented through voluntary family registration, and supported by a range of public and private partners (including hospitals, health centres, libraries, and post offices) books are distributed periodically to participating children. This paper presents the initiative as a distributive public policy and critically examines its evaluation process, conducted by education researchers from the University of Minho in close collaboration with the project coordinator. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the evaluation draws on data from an interview with the project lead, as well as socio-cultural profiling of participating families and their reading practices, obtained through a questionnaire completed during the registration phase.

Integrating mathematics with children's literature has emerged as a promising approach in early mathematics education. This study explores the use of the picture book Just a Little Bit (Tompert, 1997) as a pedagogical tool for introducing the concept of mass measurement to preschool children. The aim of the study was to design and implement story-based mathematical activities inspired by the narrative and to examine children's engagement and emerging understanding of mass comparison. The study involved 24 children aged 4–5 years attending a kindergarten in Slovenia. Six structured activities were conducted over a three-week period. Data were collected through systematic observation and analysis of children's drawings representing balance scales.The results indicate that the story stimulated children's interest and supported their engagement in measurement-related activities. Most children were able to distinguish between heavier and lighter objects and recognize the basic function of a balance scale, although only a small proportion accurately represented the direction of imbalance in their drawings. The findings suggest that children's literature can provide a meaningful context for introducing early mathematical concepts when combined with hands-on activities and guided discussion.

Socially complex peer play may provide opportunities for children to coordinate perspectives, negotiate roles, and respond to others' needs, but its association with prosocial judgment may differ according to children's social-cognitive resources. This small-scale longitudinal study examined whether mental state knowledge assessed at age 4–5 conditioned the concurrent association between socially complex peer play and prosocial judgment assessed at age 5–6. Participants were 35 children from a private nursery school in Japan. Mental state knowledge was assessed using a false-belief task. At age 5–6, children completed helping and sharing judgment tasks, and their free play was observed naturalistically across repeated focal-child observations. Socially complex peer play was indexed by the combined proportion of associative and cooperative play. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the interaction between earlier mental state knowledge and socially complex peer play significantly predicted sharing judgment. The corresponding interaction for helping was positive but did not reach the conventional significance threshold. Sensitivity analyses using heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors supported the sharing result. Given the modest sample size, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary. They suggest that the association between socially complex peer play and prosocial judgment may differ according to children's earlier social-cognitive resources.

Introduction Level-2 visual perspective taking (VPT-2) reflects children’s ability to understand others’ visual experiences. However, the effects of viewing angle and task materials on 4-year-olds’ performance remain unclear. Methods Using a picture-taking (“photographer”) task, this study examined the effects of test tool and rotation angle, as well as egocentric error patterns, among 163 four-year-old children from Hainan, China. A 2 (test tool: Lego figurines vs. geometric solids) × 3 (rotation angle: 0°, 90°, 180°) within-subjects design was used. The formal test comprised 18 four-alternative trials, with three trials in each Tool × Angle condition; each correct response scored 1 and each incorrect response scored 0. Performance was assessed using raw correct scores and the proportions of egocentric errors. Results Rotation angle significantly affected performance in a nonmonotonic pattern: raw correct scores were highest at 0°, followed by 180°, and lowest at 90°. The main effect of test tool was significant, with higher raw correct scores in the Lego figurine condition than in the geometric solids condition. The Tool × Angle interaction for raw correct scores was not significant. The proportions of egocentric errors showed significant main effects of test tool and rotation angle, as well as a significant Tool × Angle interaction. Egocentric errors were most pronounced in the geometric solids condition at 180°. Supplementary analyses revealed no significant sex main effect or sex-related interactions. Discussion These findings indicate that 4-year-olds’ VPT-2 performance varies across rotation angles and test materials. Performance differences between material conditions may be associated with differences in task structure, stimulus discriminability, social cues, and spatial-relational judgment demands, whose independent contributions could not be isolated in this study. Because the analyses relied on raw correct scores and error-type data, the findings should be interpreted as differences in behavioral performance rather than direct evidence about processing strategies or cognitive mechanisms.

The relationship between parenting behaviour and children's socio-emotional functioning is well documented in Western samples, yet evidence from primary-school-age children in Andhra Pradesh, India, is limited. This cross-sectional correlational study examined whether parent-reported authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting were related to children's total difficulties and prosocial behaviour. Fifty parents of children aged 6-12 years completed an online 25-item researcher-developed questionnaire. Most parents (86%) reported predominantly authoritative behaviour. Authoritative parenting was unrelated to prosocial behaviour (r = .06) and difficulties (r = -.03), and authoritarian parenting was unrelated to difficulties (r = .13), so the main hypotheses were not supported. Authoritarian parenting was negatively correlated with prosocial behaviour (r = -.37, p = .009), and children from joint families scored higher on prosocial behaviour than children from nuclear families (d = 0.70). Scale reliability was low (α = -.21 to .28), so the findings are tentative. Validated tools and larger samples are needed.

Gross motor development is an important aspect of early childhood development that requires stimulation through various play activities. The availability of outdoor play facilities can provide children with opportunities to engage in a variety of movements appropriate to their developmental stages. This study aims to examine the potential role of outdoor play facilities in stimulating the gross motor development of young children, using the facilities available at TK Wijaya Kusumah as a contextual reference. This study employs a library research method with content analysis. The sources reviewed include relevant national and international journal articles and reference books. Unstructured observations and documentation of the outdoor play facilities at TK Wijaya Kusumah were used to provide contextual information about the facilities discussed. The findings indicate that various types of equipment, including tire stepping paths, swings, slides, spinning bowls, wobbly bridges, monkey bars, seesaws, and balance beams, offer different types of movement activities and have the potential to stimulate muscle strength, balance, movement coordination, agility, and postural control. The use of these facilities should consider children's developmental stages, equipment safety, and teacher supervision. This review provides an overview of the potential of various outdoor play facilities to stimulate gross motor development and may serve as a reference for teachers and early childhood education providers in designing play environments. Since this study is based on a literature review and does not directly assess children's motor abilities, the findings cannot establish a causal relationship between the completeness of outdoor play facilities and children's gross motor development.

Background The first period of life shapes later life chances, but the economic consequences accumulate across later childhood, adolescence and adulthood and fall across several policy sectors. Existing reviews typically address one risk factor at a time, or focus on a restricted outcome domain, leaving the relevant evidence scattered. This umbrella review collates review-level evidence on how early childhood exposures affect later economic outcomes. Methods The review was registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/szpx5/overview). Medline, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Education Research Complete & Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection databases were searched in November 2025. Systematic, rapid, scoping, narrative and umbrella reviews were eligible if they examined early childhood exposures and later outcomes with measurable consequences for education, employment, income, criminal justice involvement, quality of life, wellbeing or service costs. Reviews reporting only health status outcomes, and those focused on low- and middle-income countries, were excluded. Two authors screened and extracted independently, and quality was appraised. Findings were synthesised narratively. Results Seventy-two reviews were included, published between 2001 and 2025 and increasingly since 2021. Adverse childhood experiences and related adversity were the most frequently examined exposures, followed by childhood physical health conditions, birth and perinatal factors, and neurodevelopmental and behavioural difficulties. Early years risk factors were consistently associated with poorer later education and employment, lower income and greater criminal justice involvement. Evidence on quality of life was mixed, and service use and costs were seldom reported. Few reviews addressed publication bias. Conclusion Difficulties experienced in the early years have consequences across several later life domains and public sectors. The evidence is most consistent for education and criminal justice involvement, and thinner for quality of life, service use and costs. Reviews rarely address correlations between risk factors or the pathways connecting them to later outcomes. Modelling these pathways and evaluating interventions to address early years risks are priorities. Limitations of the review were the inclusion of studies that covered a wide range of age groups and the exclusion of health outcomes.

The widespread availability of smartphones and internet access has made TikTok part of children’s everyday entertainment. This situation requires parents to guide children not only by limiting screen time but also through communication that helps children understand appropriate content and use. This study aims to describe and analyse parents’ interpersonal communication patterns in controlling TikTok use among children aged 7–12 years in Villa Gading Harapan 5 Housing Estate, Tambun Utara, Bekasi. The study used a descriptive qualitative design. Data were collected from April to June 2026 through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, and documentation. Five parents were selected as key informants using purposive sampling, while two children participated as supporting informants. The data were analysed through data reduction, presentation, conclusion drawing, and technique triangulation. The findings show that parents apply the five elements of effective interpersonal communication proposed by Joseph A. DeVito: openness, empathy, supportiveness, positiveness, and equality. Supportiveness is the most visible element, expressed through advice about age-appropriate content, direct supervision, time limits, and diversion to other activities. Openness remains the most vulnerable element because one child tended to restrict parental access to digital activities. The study indicates that controlling TikTok use is more effective when rules are accompanied by warm dialogue, emotional understanding, and opportunities for children to express their views. Parents should therefore maintain consistent, non-judgmental conversations and make digital supervision part of daily family interaction.

Purpose: to explore the use of nature-based loose parts in supporting young children’s creativity through material exploration, independent choice, experimentation, and open-ended play at PAUD Kiddy Kid Center, Banda Aceh. Method: this study employed a qualitative descriptive approach at PAUD Kiddy Kid Center, Banda Aceh. Participants included four young children and their teacher, selected purposively. Data were collected through observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentation, then analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, comprising data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Findings: nature-based loose parts provided opportunities for children to express creativity through material exploration, independent selection, experimentation, material combination, imagination, and the development of diverse creations. All four observed children demonstrated the identified creative behaviors, although their participation pace varied. Teachers facilitated these processes through careful material preparation, safety supervision, and open-ended guidance. Despite challenges in material storage and hygiene, nature-based loose parts offered an accessible and flexible learning resource that supported creative engagement beyond the final product. Implications: PAUD educators can use accessible natural materials to create open-ended learning activities that encourage children’s creativity, independence, and exploration. Originality: lies in its process-oriented examination of how children explore, select, combine, and transform nature-based loose parts, emphasizing creative processes rather than finished products.