In my diploma thesis entitled “The Effect of Sculptural Experience on story memorization in preschool” I first briefly touched on what active learning is and what the role of adults is in this. In the chapter on picture books, I described what a picture book is, what role the pedagogical tandem plays in a classroom or kindergarten; what is the difference in handling books for younger and older children; in what way and on what occasions professional workers use printed materials in kindergarten. I investigated how books and fairy tales influence on a child's development; what is a fairy tale and what is characteristic of it; what is the connection between a book and the illustration in it; and what activities after reading are carried out by educators and assistants in kindergarten. I continued my research activity with sculpture. I enumerated some basics of what sculpture is and what it does; listed visual expressions and also described them. I defined sculpture techniques; I enumerated which sculpting materials we know and described each one, and in the most detail three (clay, plasticine and salt dough) with which I also carried out the empirical part. In the conclusion, I summarized what can affect children's artistic expression.
In the empirical part, I described the research, that I carried out first as a group and then as an individual work with preschool children. I researched which sculpting material children prefer and whether it contributes to a better idea of size relationships. The results showed that children like to choose both clay and plasticine, but salt dough did not attract on them much. It turned out that sculpting material has good effects in contributing to a better idea of size relationships. If we compare children, it turned out that it can also seduce them or into colours like plasticine, or that the child is more concerned with the material itself and then forgets about the mathematical task. I used a survey questionnaire to investigate, how often teachers and assistants read picture books to children, what they usually check after reading, what types of activities they most often do after reading, how often they do sculpting, and what discourages them from using sculpting materials. The results showed that teachers and assistants read picture books often, most often 4-5 times or at least 2-3 times a week, but that after reading, they most often check understanding of the content, then memorization of the story, understanding of words, and least often speaking skills. After reading a picture book, they most often talk, dance, sing, draw, or use a post-reading activity that is not related to reading.
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