This thesis, Merry-making activities in kindergarten, consists of both a theoretical and an empirical part. The first part looks at the importance of play in children's development and defines games in the pre-school period. It proceeds with a more detailed description of music education and its significance, including the importance of music activities and educational music games in kindergarten. Finally, we describe dance and movement education and its importance as well as children's folklore, focusing on the meaning and description of singing games for children.
The aim of our thesis was to study the use of singing games as part of planned music activities in kindergarten. We also examined the impact of singing games on the child's mood and which singing games pre-school teachers chose most often. One hundred pre-school teachers from central and southeastern Slovenia were included in the study.
We found that more than half of the pre-school teachers played singing games with the children at least eight times a month or more. While playing merry-making activities, the children were in a better mood, more cooperative and relaxed, connected, and followed the rules more closely. Furthermore, singing games had an essential role in preserving tradition and helped develop a sense of rhythm. The findings showed that pre-school teachers preferred to play singing games with roleplay elements, the most popular being ringa raja, bela lilija, rdeče češnje, and Abraham.
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