Observing of the life cycle of a frog in kindergarten

Otroci radi spoznavajo živali, njihov razvoj, zato sem se odločila, da bom v predšolsko skupino otrok prinesla žabji mrest, da bomo skupaj opazovali, kako se razvija in kaj iz njega nastane. V teoretičnem delu sem opisala dvoživke, njihov življenjski krog, njihove značilnosti ter razvoj. Predstavila sem tudi vrsto žabe sekulja, ki smo jo gojili v vrtcu. Poleg tega sem se poglobila tudi v vlogo odraslega ob spoznavanju in gojenju dvoživke doma ali v vrtcu. Ker so v praktičnem delu otroci predvsem opazovali razvoj žabe, sem se v teoretičnem delu poglobila tudi v pomen in pravilen potek vodenega opazovanja pri predšolskih otrocih. Opisala sem tudi, kakšen je pomen začetnega naravoslovja v predšolskem obdobju ter kakšen pomen ima izkustveno učenje. Iz že narejenih raziskav sem povzela, kako dobro predšolski otroci poznajo dvoživke. Dodala sem še poglavje o embrionalnem razvoju človeka, saj smo le-tega (v vrtcu z otroki) primerjali z razvojem žabe. V empiričnem delu pa sem vsako svoje srečanje z otroki podrobno opisala ter dodala rezultate raziskave. Dodala sem tudi njihove risbe in slike mojih obiskov v njihovi skupini. Že v prvih intervjujih, ki sem jih naredila z otroki, sem ugotovila, da o razvoju žabe vedo presenetljivo veliko. Nekateri otroci so znali razvoj opisati že po stopnjah, nekateri bolj pomanjkljivo. Le nekaj otrok tega ni znalo opisati. Otroci so razvoj paglavcev spremljali z zanimanjem, poleg tega so spremembe, ki so jih opazili, ob skoraj vsakem mojem obisku narisali v za to namenjen zvezek. Risanje jim ni delalo velikih težav. Ko so se paglavci razvili v žabo, so otroci spoznali življenjski krog žabe in skupaj smo žabji razvoj primerjali z embrionalnim razvojem človeka v materinem trebuhu. Otroci so znali povezati nekaj vzporednic in ugotovili so, da sta si razvoja zelo podobna. Otroci so se na enem izmed mojih srečanj spoznali tudi z živo odraslo žabo in jo imeli možnost držati v rokah. Ob končnih intervjujih z vsakim otrokom sem ugotovila, da so otroci skozi opazovanja in risanja spoznali in se naučili novih strokovnih besed (mrest, paglavec, zakrnitev repa, dvoživka, življenjski krog) ter še bolje znali opisati razvojni krog žabe ter našteti nekaj njihovih značilnosti. Poleg tega so tudi tisti, ki jih je bilo prej strah te živali, le-tega premagali in z veseljem so začeli skrbeti zanje. Otroci so preko vodenega opazovanja dvoživko zelo dobro spoznali in si zapomnili veliko naravoslovnih informacij. Dobili so veselje do gojenja dvoživk in nova znanja o njihovem razvoju.Children love to learn about animals, their development, therefore I decided to bring frog spawn to a group of preschool children in order to observe together its development and discuss what was going to become of it. In the theoretical part I described amphibians, their life cycle, characteristics and development. I also introduced a species of frogs, namely brown frog that had been bred at kindergarten. Furthermore, I studied the role of an adult in learning about and breeding amphibians at home or at kindergarten. As the practical part of the assignment was designed so that the children could observe the frog development, I investigated the meaning and the correct procedure of guided observation in preschool children. I described the importance of natural science education in the preschool period and the significance of experimental learning. From the existing studies I summed up the extent to which preschool children are familiar with the amphibians. I added a section on embryonic development of humans, as it was compared to the frog’s at the kindergarten. In the empirical part each session with the children is described in details and research results are added, together with children’s drawings and photo material that was produced in the sessions. During the first interviews it was made very clear to me that the children were surprisingly well acquainted with frog development. Some of them were able to describe the development according to the stages, the others with some deficiencies. There were only few children unable to describe the frog development. The children observed the tadpole development with plenty of interest. They drew the changes they had noticed after each session into a special notebook intended for the frog development. Drawing itself presented no trouble to the children. While the tadpoles developed into frogs, the children familiarized themselves with the frog life cycle, which was later compared to the embryonic development of humans in mother’s womb. The children were able to draw parallels between the two species to find out that the two developments are very much alike. At one of the sessions the children were introduced to an adult frog and were keen to hold it in their hands. In the interviews I held with children subsequently, I could notice that children, through observing and drawing, were able to learn new, professional vocabulary, containing words, such as spawn, tadpole, tail truncation, amphibian, life cycle, and improved their knowledge on frog development cycle and enumerate some of its characteristics. Above all, the children who had previously been afraid of frogs were now able to overcome the fear, approach the animals and even start taking care of them. The children memorized many natural science data through guided observation of an amphibian and got to know it to a great extent. They adopted the joy of breeding amphibians and acquiring knowledge on their (own) development