Technical workshops with the crate of creativity and cross-curricular learning

The consumer-oriented world we live in today strives towards getting as much as possible in the shortest possible time, trying to achieve our goals in the easiest way possible and often neglects quality for the sake of affordable price. This can also be seen in the availability of toys that we buy for our children, because that is what they seem to want. However, oftentimes in the process of buying, we/parents do not pay attention to the quality of the toy and whether the toy is appropriate for the child or not. Do we even ask ourselves what, if anything, will the toy bring to our children's creativity, and if the children will use them to strengthen their mental and physical capabilities? In most cases, the toy will only satisfy their current needs. This is why I believe the role of the preschool teachers in this area is vital. That alone was the reason enough for me to set a challenge to construct a toy all by myself. One that will satisfy as wide of a range of children’s needs as possible and at the same time offer the possibility of further improvement. Alongside building a toy, we set an additional challenge. Specifically, how to induce greater creativity in the process of using this multifunctional didactic toy by means of various verbal incentives. We will focus on children from age of three to four years who will try and evaluate the toy. It is the teacher’s creativity that benefits the children the most in the way that it enables them to develop their own potentials, to let them be bold and to free their imagination. This kind of product assignment in the field of technics and technology is very desirable in the educational process as it enables the teacher and the child to familiarize themselves with all the phases of the process. From the initial idea, to the planning, making of the prototype, construction and lastly the assessment of the final product, which is then provided by the children. The child has to be an active participant in the whole process, has to have the opportunity to express his wishes and thoughts, to create something by himself and to achieve the goal that was set in the beginning. With my thesis I want to encourage teachers to be as creative as possible and to include more technical elements in their curriculum. Whatever the teachers will create with the children, whether it is a toy or a game, will certainly provide a bigger range of challenges and mean much more to the children than the toys bought in the store