The aim of the dissertation project was to determine whether there are differences in the frequency of preschool children’ contact with animals between urban and village kindergartens in Slovenia. In the theoretical part of this paper, I presented the role of animals in a child's life, both the positive effects of coexistence with an animal and the negative ones. I also wrote about the increasingly important task of kindergarten, which encourages contact with nature and animals in preschool children, and about the consequences that arise if this contact with nature is insufficient. I highlighted the main goals and guidelines for nature activities from the Kindergarten Curriculum. At the end, I also wrote about the importance of including animals in kindergarten playrooms and gave some instructions, which the educator must follow when including animals in the playroom. In the empirical part, I conducted a quantitative research using an online survey questionnaire. The sample included 308 pedagogical workers from Slovenian public and private kindergartens, who decided to solve the questionnaire anonymously voluntarily. I used a causal-non-experimental method of data collection. I interpreted the results on a descriptive and inferential level, with words and graphs and tables. By analyzing the results, I found that between village and urban kindergartens in Slovenia, there are statistically significant differences in the frequency of contact with animals and in the choice of activities involving animals. There are also statistically significant deviations in the frequency of contact with different animals for individual time periods. I have found that urban kindergartens are more likely to have their own animals than village kindergartens.
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