By interweaving the various areas of the kindergarten curriculum, we enable the child to develop holistically and optimally. In this way, the kindergarten teacher presents a topic from different perspectives. The diploma dissertation presents a project in which children learn about the development of frogs through interdisciplinary activities. We combined the curriculum areas of nature and music.
Eighteen preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 participated in the study. The children took part in eight cross-curricular activities on frog development that covered the two mentioned curriculum areas equally. Frog spawn were hatched in a nursery at the kindergarten and the development from tadpole to frog was observed, with the children being musically creative.
In order to establish which ideas the children held about frogs, how children develop, and how creative they are in the musical field, we conducted: a) semi-structured individual interviews before and after the interdisciplinary activities; and b) a musical creativity test. As part of the semi-structured individual interviews, we asked the children nine questions about the biology and development of frogs. Using an adapted test to measure musical creativity, we determined the children's creativity in rhythmic expression using the method of rhythmic questions and answers in the context of rhythmic expression. We focused on the criterion of fluency and flexibility of the creative musical products.
The results of the study reveal that the children's initial ideas about frogs and their development were mostly wrong. The children at first thought the frog already gives birth to a small frog, as is typical for mammals. The results of the adapted musical creativity test also showed that at the beginning the children were not as creative in the area of musical creativity as they were at the end. After engaging in the interdisciplinary activities, the children's knowledge of science and music increased. Their attitude to frogs also became more positive. Their answers revealed that after the activities, the children mainly learned how the development from spawn to tadpole to frog unfolds and something about the biology of a frog. In the area of musical creativity, they recited more rhymes as part of rhythmic sayings and gave more rhythmic answers, which were also more complex, through the method of rhythmic questions and answers.
The research results demonstrate the importance of linking different curriculum areas together as well as providing hands-on experience through activities. We recommend that this type of activity is frequently integrated into the kindergarten curriculum.
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