The importance of the natural environment and the kindergarten playground for the pre-school children\u27s activity

V diplomski nalogi sem se osredotočil predvsem na pomen in potrebo po čim večjem vključevanju naravnega okolja v vzgojo in izobraževalni sistem. Teoretični del sem razdelil na področja, ki pomembno vplivajo na diplomsko nalogo, in jih podrobneje opredelil. V uvodu sem predstavil osnovno nacionalno gradivo Kurikulum za vrtce, v katerem so smernice, načela ter cilji vzgoje in izobraževanja, med katerimi lahko najdemo tudi opredelitev narave, gibanja in igre. V nadaljevanju sem se oprl na rdečo nit dela – naravo. S pomočjo različnih avtorjev sem razložil, kako pomembna je narava za otrokov celostni razvoj, vključno z razvijanjem primernega odnosa do nje. V zadnjem poglavju teoretičnega dela pa sem se dotaknil gibalnega področja in igre. Glavni namen empiričnega dela je bila primerjava aktivnosti v učnem gozdičku in na vrtčevskem igrišču. V prvi vrsti me je zanimalo, kakšne so razlike gibalnih dejavnosti med obema okoljema, v katerem okolju se otroci več gibljejo in ali je kakršnakoli razlika v gibanju in dejavnostih v različnih okoljih glede na otrokov spol. Rezultate sem zbiral na podlagi meritev z napravo Garmin in opazovanjem otrok med merjenjem. Pridobljeni rezultati kažejo na to, da se aktivnosti otrok v gozdu in na vrtčevskem igrišču precej razlikujejo. Gozd kot okolje, ki ima na voljo številne naravne materiale, ponuja otrokom pestrejše spodbude za igro. Tudi dolžina opravljene poti v enakem časovnem intervalu je bila v povprečju večja v gozdu, in to pri obeh spolih, le da se tam več gibajo dečki, ki so opravili občutno daljšo pot kot na igrišču. Na igrišču glede gibanja med spoloma ni vidne razlike.The primary purpose of this study is to determine the importance and the need for the inclusion of the natural environment in the educational system. The theoretical part has first been divided into areas relevant to the topic and then thoroughly researched. The introduction offers a description of the basic Slovenian National Curriculum for Pre-School Institutions which includes the guidelines, principles and aims of education. Among those, the definition of nature, movement and play can also be found. Next, the focus shifts to the main idea of the thesis – nature. By studying different authors, I explained the importance of nature for a child\u27s development as well as the development of appropriate relationship with it. The last part of the theoretical analysis briefly deals with the movement and play. The main objective of the empirical part was to depict the differences in activities in the learning forest with those in the kindergarten playground. I was mainly interested in finding gender-based differences in movement activities. All the data was collected with the help of the Garmin tool and through observation. When analyzed, it showed the forest activities children indulge in differ greatly from the ones available on the kindergarten playground. A forest as an environment with countless natural materials encourages significantly more diverse play stimulation. Furthermore, the length of the path the children of both genders conducted in the same time interval was on average much longer in the forest than on the playground. It should be notedhowever, boys did move more in the natural environment than on the playground. Overall, the kindergarten playground did not seem to encourage many differences in genders