Sewing as a form of technical activity in the preschool period

In today’s world, textiles are really important. They are present all around us in form of clothing and accessories, but all of them are undervalued. For this reason, the knowledge about textiles and their processing techniques are important in the preschool period. The purpose of this thesis was to present a form of technical activity, i.e. sewing, and the use of a technical tool (sewing machine) as an example of good practice that would encourage the education staff to use it in class. The theoretical part thus discusses the materials and the technological processes used for fabricating textile fibres and fabrics along with their characteristics. We also explained the developmental characteristics of children and the role of a child’s play, which has an important role in practice as it allows the children to express themselves. Furthermore, textiles are a perfect example of an accessory that leads the child to different forms of play, helping him or her to put forward ideas etc. We touched on the Kindergarten Curriculum in connection with examples of a technical activity, i.e. sewing, and textile manipulation. The survey questionnaire allowed us to determine how often the children learn to sew as part of a technical activity performed in kindergarten. 38 preschool teachers from the Škofljica Kindergarten participated in the survey. We found that preschool teachers often give sewing lessons but encounter many problems in the process. They use a sewing machine and create textile items they offer or give the children on various occasion, but children are discouraged from participating. We also carried out a project in the kindergarten through which the children got to know sewing as a technical activity using a sewing needle and a sewing machine. The goal was to present sewing as a positive experience and the activity of sewing with a sewing machine as a new experience that brings a lot of happiness, joy and motivation to the child in the process. In addition, this was their first opportunity to try sewing on a sewing machine. Parents and children actively participated in providing different textile materials for the performance of our activities. Finally, textile materials encouraged the children to create a new corner we entitled a ‘Textile shop’