Comparison of three models of technical activities for child creativity development

This paper tries to make kindergarten teachers aware of different wooden models for children's play that help increase their creativity. Working with wood, we want to encourage children's creativity and motivate them to think, give an opinion as well as search for novelties and solutions. Due to these reasons, we decided to test three wooden toy models in the kindergarten. Children who participated in the activity were aged between 4 and 5. They proved that they can create many different shapes if we let them be creative and imaginative. Prior to the activity, we carried out a survey in the Ribnica Kindergarten to determine how and to what extent they use wood as a material. The results of the survey show that wood is not the first choice when it comes to selecting a material to perform activities, but paper and plastic. The theoretical part describes creativity as an extremely broad term and focuses on creativity in children in the preschool period. We present creativity in the Kindergarten Curriculum in terms of some of its goals and principles. We also describe play and the types of play that are the most common in the preschool period, which is followed by a presentation of wood as a material for children’s play in the kindergarten. The empirical part presents the analysis of the survey carried out among kindergarten teachers. Three wooden toy models are described, performance of the activity presented and the analysis of the course of the activity in the kindergarten outlined. The activity was performed in the group Ježki with 16 children, aged from 4 to 5. Children played with the three wooden toy models. We could see their focus, motivation and creativity. Throughout the activity, we observed their thoughts, ideas, incentives and explorations and we learnt about their imagination and new experience. Based on what we witnessed, children enjoyed the play as they played with the toy models even during recess, at the morning reception and during afternoon play. The three wooden toy models broadened the children's knowledge and even more encouraged them to play and be creative. This paper tries to encourage all kindergarten teachers to perform activities or projects with wood as a key element. The thing is that children immensely enjoy when playing with wooden toys, develop their own creativity as well as gain technical and technological knowledge