To children, playing means learning and learning means playing. For it is through play that they learn new skills and gain essential competences for their optimum development. In the theoretical part of my diploma work From playing with fabrics to Active learning I initially described the child's development and its influence on his voice, kinetic, sensor and social competencies. Further on, I described the characteristics of play in the pre-school period and its characteristics at the youngest children. At the end of my diploma work, I highlighted the characteristics of the play in the pre-school period and its characteristics at the youngest children, including the childcare worker's role in enabling the children to learn actively.
The project which was carried out in the Oton Župančič kindergarten in Črnomelj in a group of 1 and 2 year olds is presented in the empirical part of the diploma work in which it is demonstrated through the description of activities and through pictures, how the children developed, learned, got to know the non-structured material, and also how they sought for any likely solutions to the problem, learning actively throughout the entire process. Every day I faced the children with a new challenge in a way that they could easily accomplish the task, for it is through success that they feel satisfaction and strengthen their confidence and build their self-image. What I paid most attention to during their play was the way in which they responded to object, how they interacted with others and evolved new knowledge. I not only tried to present new challenges to the children every day, so they could solve them, but also tried to identify their capabilities. The description of the playhouse activities is followed by evaluation. The findings show that non-structured material offers the children a variety of possibilities for original play which they enjoy, learn through it and at the same time get to know a new dimension of play that stands out of the average.
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