Artistic expression is in children's nature. It's a form of expression that soothes, excites them, and leaves its imprint on their development. Children look on their crafts and products differently as we do. Through their creations we can see what is close to their emotions, what they like and what they don't, what troubles them at the given moment. At the pre-school they have lot of ways to express their emotions through art. They can do that by drawing, painting, playing, and manipulating with different materials. They also create through their play. During my work at pre-schools, I gathered that professional staff usually offers the children the same means of art expression. In my diploma I wanted to research the field of art that is less used than others.
Sculpture is a field of art that children acknowledge at preschool age. My question is whether girls feel closer to the field or do the boys. Handling clay, and other soft material, is a great value for fine motor skills. It affects fine motor skills. Good movement of the hands, fingers specifically, is an important base for every other activity a child does. I took preschool children under the magnifying glass and compared two age groups and both genders. In the practical part of the diploma the children participated in a few specific tasks. Then I compared their results of fine motor skills before and after sculpting activities with clay. The empiric part of the diploma includes views, comments, and opinions of preschool teachers. I wanted their view on clay activities and fine motor skill development. I gathered this information with a web questionnaire, which was online for a month.
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