Introduction of elementary science in kindergarten through a didactic game

Play and movement are the primary needs of children, which must also be considered when planning activities in kindergarten. For pre-school children, the best thing is active learning, which is usually achieved through play and physical activities. Play and movement are a kind of link to other curriculum areas, so these two components should be included in a child's daily routine in kindergarten. The child is playing and being physically active because of their own desire to do so, so they are not even aware that they are learning at the same time. Based on my findings about the importance of play and movement in preschool, I have developed a didactic game. The content is naturalistic, i.e. besides play and movement, the theoretical part defines the field of nature and the importance of elementary science in kindergarten. This is followed by an introduction to the main groups of vertebrates and some general information about the systematics of living beings, as the children learn about the characteristics of animals through my didactic game. The last chapter of the theoretical part describes the pre-schoolers’ ideas about the taxonomy of animals, the laws of cognitive development, the implications of including animals in activities and the role of the kindergarten teacher in this. My didactic game Živster is based on the game Twister. I tested it with a group of pre-school children in the second age group. The main aim of my thesis was to find out whether the game influences the change of knowledge about the physical characteristics of animals. The children were interviewed before and after playing the game, and then I compared their responses. The game was found to have a significant effect on knowledge about the physical characteristics of animals and naming animals