Children are exposed to the field of art on a daily basis, taking into account all branches of art. The arts have much to offer children in terms of their development, but the role of educator or preschool teacher is also very important with that, as he, as a competent person, monitors and guides them.
In terms of music, children are introduced to all three activities: making music, listening to music, and performing music. In all of these music activities, child develops his creativity, which is important for his further development. Younger children musically express themselves by making sounds with different instruments, with their voice and with their body, but mostly through phisical movement. In my master's thesis I will focus on musical activities related to the use of materials that are easily accessible to every educator, parent and child. The activities presented and already tried and tested, can generally help in designing training programs and with further use of such activities in kindergarten.
The first, theoretical part of my master's thesis, presents the national document for kindergarten work – Kurikulum za vrtce (eng. Curricculum for kindergartens 1999), the curricculum areas and the field of arts. Musical creativity is also very important, as it is characterised by spontaneity, freedom and a tendency to express, create and play. Furthermore, I also presented the importance of active learning in kindergarten and its characteristics. I also devoted a few words to children's play, which is child's primary activity and from which children learn a lot. I also described environmental education, as this is directly related to the use of materials, that we used in the activities carried out. The second part of my master's thesis includes a presentation and analysis of the workshops carried out as part of the project work in kindergarten. I described the overall and individual planning of each set of the workshops. In this part, I also included some photographs of the workshops that were carried out.
The aim of my master's thesis and my research is to examine different ways of using casual, everyday, on hand materials for making music and to find out how music workshops effect the observed children in the kindergarten. I designed and tested music activities in which kindergarten children from one department, aged 2–3 years, were involved. In my research I observed and described, two randomly selected children, of the age of 2–3 years. I chose the pedagogical approaches and methods of work, according to my goals and then adjusted them based on the analysis of the workshops I conducted. Music activities have been proven to stimulate non-verbal and verbal communication and creativity, and children also progressed musically. By providing practical and concrete descriptions of the workshops in my Master's thesis, I want to encourage those educators who prefer to avoid musical activities to be willing to work in this area too. The information obtained may affect the awereness of preschool teachers about the importance of music and musical activities.
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