In the diploma thesis, I mainly research a child’s understanding of the phenomenon of the change between day and night. The research is partly focused also on children’s ideas about the shape of our planet – the Earth. In the theoretical part, I introduce the status of space theme and natural phenomena in a kindergarten curriculum and the course of the development of thinking. Then, I introduce the characteristics of our solar system, describe the phenomenon of the change between day and night and introduce the shape of the Earth. This is followed by descriptions and abstracts of foreign researches. In the empirical part, the results of the research work, which I carried out with 100 children, aged 4 to 6 years, from four different kindergartens, are described. Individually, I asked each child 11 questions on the topic of the change between day and night, whereas the 12th question involved making the planet Earth out of plasticine. The results have shown that the majority of children present the initial thinking model of the understanding of the change between day and night. Some are also synthetic and scientifically correct. More than one third of the children is familiar with the round shape of the Earth. The results of the research confirm the findings of foreign researches that are described and presented in the theoretical part of the thesis.
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