Browsing by Author "Turunen, Sami"

Play is the biggest thing in life for young children. It has been demonstrated that play and its changes in a different age in years have been linked to the more general development of the child and, hence, to learning. Play is a child's tool for the development of imagination, creativity and emotions. However, interesting how play occurs in an environment different from the daycare center, in the woods. Today, children have less chance of playing in natural environments. However, it has been demonstrated that acting naturally motivates a child in quite different ways. In the woods the activity is holistic and the focus is not on concentrating on just one aspect of competence. Different learning environments gain creativity, motor skills and cognitive skills to flourish. The research task of this study was to describe, analyze and interpret the views of kindergarten teachers as the operating environment of forest impact as pre-school play, how they see playing in the forest environment and how to support it. The aim of the subject is to get answers by charting the ideas of kindergarten teachers on interview questions and thereby gain a broader understanding of the topic being studied. Four pre-school kindergarten teachers were selected for the study, whose group action plans emphasized the utilization of forest as an active and play environment. The material was collected by interviews that were recorded for later unloading. The results showed that kindergarten teachers saw the play in the forest as versatile, child-rewarding and meaningful for children. There was no bigger problem for the support of the play, but the investigators reported that the support of the play was essentially the same as the day care center. The study also revealed the indirect support given by nature to children's play. As a playground, the forest seemed soothing, allowing children to use more sound and space.