Preparing a child for school through project activities in kindergarten

Polazak djeteta u školu nova je situacija kako za dijete, tako i za roditelje. Dijete je prije polaska u školu uključeno u vrtić po cjelodnevnom ili poludnevnom programu. Tijekom godine dana prije djetetova polaska u školu, dijete se priprema za školu kroz razne aktivnosti. Neke od aktivnosti koje se provode u predškoli su: vježbe grafomotorike, predčitačkih vještina, strpljenja, rješavanja konflikata s vršnjacima, matematičke aktivnosti i sl. Osim prethodno navedenih aktivnosti, svakako se preporučuju projektne aktivnosti kao priprema djeteta za školu jer se upravo njima djeca istovremeno razvijaju na više područja te uče na njima zanimljiv način. Cilj ovog rada bio je utvrditi stavove odgojitelja o projektnim aktivnostima te o njihovim navikama u vezi pripreme djece za školu. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku 10 odgojiteljica u 7 dječjih vrtića na području grada Osijeka. Iz provedenog istraživanja može se zaključiti kako projekti nisu prvenstveno bili namijenjeni pripremi djece za polazak u školu, ali su elementi projekta doprinijeli tom. Analizom sadržaja javno dostupnih web stranica dječjih vrtića primijećeno je da se projekti provode u većini vrtića, no samo njih 8 od 50 provode projekte vezane za pripremu djece za polazak u školu. Također na temelju rezultata provedenog istraživanja primijećeno je da se u prosjeku provodilo 2-3 projekta u pedagoškoj godini što se odnosi i na analizirane web stranice dječjih vrtića.Starting school is a new situation for both a child and a parent. The child is included in the kindergarten for a full day or half-day programme before going to school. During one year before child’s departure to school, the child is preparing for the school through various activities. Some of the activities that are being conducted in a preschool are: graphomotor exercises, pre-reading skills, patience, solving conflicts with peers, math activities, etc. In addition to the previously mentioned activities, it is advisable to use project activities as a child’s preparation for school, because with them children are developing in many areas at the same time and learning in an interesting way. The aim of this paper was to determine the educators’ attitudes about project activities and about their habits of preparing children for school. The research was conducted on a sample of 10 educators in 7 kindergartens in the Osijek area. From the conducted research it can be concluded that the projects were not primarily designed to prepare children for school departure, but the project elementscontributed to it. By analyzing the content of public available kindergartens websites, project are being implemented in most kindergartens but only 8 of 50 implement projects related to preparing children for school departure. Furthermore, based on the results of the conducted research, it was noted that 2-3 projects on average were implemented in the pedagogical year which also applies to analized kindergartens websites