Children have a great need for physical movement. Through creative movement, they discover various contents. Creative movement and dance help them move, express themselves, be creative, develop their imagination, and strengthen social relations within their groups.
This dissertation explores the positive effects of creative movement in the first stage of child development. The theoretical part introduces and describes creative movement, its importance in a child’s wholesome development, and its effects, as well as the effects of dance, on a child’s cognitive, social and emotional, and psychomotor development. It also shows how dance education and creative movement are presented in kindergarten Curriculum, what elements of dance there are, which dance stimulations are appropriate, and why relaxation should be included in our dance activities.
The empirical part presents a dance activities project focusing on creative movement that was carried out in a group of children aged two and three that come from the Gosenice class of Krtek Ihan a part of kindergarten Domžale. The children familiarized themselves with creative movement, autonomous dance creation, as well as their own bodies with the help of eight different dance activities. The course of project execution, my observations and the teacher’s observations, as well as the children’s reactions are collected in the progression and analysis of the activities, which are accompanied by photographs. The children actively participated in the project throughout its duration; they enjoyed the activities and simultaneously strengthened their imagination, creativity, and social relations. The project showed that children have both a great need and a wish for dance and other physical activities.
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