Dance at pre-school age

Dance is an art in which children experience a variety of content through movement. Through dance, children express themselves, develop their imagination and create. It is like body language, through which children show what they experience and how they feel. Expression through dance has an important role in interpersonal relations and cooperation within the group. The thesis Dancing at pre-school age presents dance planned activities, through which I wanted to encourage children to be more physically active while determining how children follow the activities and what they are experiencing. At the same time, I wished to achieve that children who are by nature more calm and reserved would begin to express themselves through dance and determine what will be the reaction of children to group dance activities. Through dance, I wished to encourage children to cooperate better with each other and to help each other. In the theoretical part, I focused on the characteristics of children at pre-school age where I was especially interested in how dance affects child's development, particularly the social one. It is explained why relaxation games are important, what parents can do in the field of dance and how we can encourage child to move. In the empirical part of the thesis, fourteen dance activities that I have carried out in the kindergarten are presented together with preparations and analysis. Activities and exercises were performed in the group of children that I met no earlier than in September 2014. Children did not know the majority of the exercises so I was interested in how they will react. The results showed that all the children were highly motivated and cooperative and particularly that they really enjoyed