The central theme of the thesis is astronomy. We presented the moon, its characteristics and surface, phases of the moon, illumination of the moon, size as well as the position of moon and Earth in the solar system in detail. The subject of astronomy is often neglected from the perspective of observations in nature, for working in the nursery school is limited to the bright part of a day; observations can mostly be conducted only in the dark part of the day. Despite that we performed a number of activities in the playroom and involved the preschool children into the mentioned astronomic contents. In the desire to present these contents to the children in the attractive way we based, prepared and created the activities that connected the active work of the children, observations and a didactic game.
A chapter on astronomy is a part of the Curriculum for nursery schools in the field of nature. A few objectives and activities that can be performed by preschool children are listed there. The objectives of the Curriculum led us to the objectives of the thesis: to discover what kind of perceptions preschool children have about the moon, moon phases and about the solar system; to prepare and perform a number of activities with the emphasis on didactic games in order to discuss and present the astronomy in the nursery school; to check the influence of the performed activities on the perceptions of the children on the moon, Earth and Sun; to evaluate the appropriateness of the usage of prepared contents and didactic games in treating the subject of astronomy in the second age group of preschool children.
We based a research whose research queries cover the objectives of the thesis. Within the research a descriptive, non-experimental method of educational research was used. Qualitative and quantitative approaches of researching are intertwined. Eighteen children aged from five to six years from the Sonček nursery school in Kranj participated in the research. The results were collected by pretests and posttests.
The results of the research indicate that didactic games positively influence perception of children about the discussed topic. We discovered that a didactic game which is properly designed and has good content and objectives enables the children to make progress, to be active, relaxed and creative.
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