The aim of this study is to increase knowledge and understanding of free play or free fun time importance for children of age around five years in preschool, in order to promote children?s development and learning. The focus was on exploring and better understanding of teacher?s and educators? approach to the free fun play time as a tool in their educational work, and also about their own role in this context as well as analyzing of forms, rules and structures spontaneously created by groups of children having free play fun time. Another important moment of this study was to give more light on approaches to this issue in education theories by Piaget, Vygotsky and Freud among others.As to the practical experimental part of the study it has been performed at a preschool and kindergarten in a suburb at the outskirts of Stockholm, with four employed educators there and with groups of children of age around five.

The aim of this report is to see whether the graphic design of a game influences children?s will to play games. I am especially looking at minimalist graphic design and how well it works for a game aimed at children age 7-9. Does the style of the game design have any impact at all concerning the children?s wish to play the game or is the game mechanic all that matters.

This thesis is based on research and observations of children on a preschool when playing in the free-play. What do the children choose to play with, when they get to choose for themselves? And how do they play? Do boys and girls together or do they divide themselves up? How important is the free-playing for the development of the child? Genus is also an important element which is interesting to observe and to see different patterns in. The abidance?s have been made while the children have been playing, and from discrete observations notes have been taken.I have been working with material, and literature from distinguished researchers within the subject.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the children?s mathematics learning through play. The questions to be answered are: how can teachers facilitate children?s mathematics learning through play? How can play affect children?s math learning? Are the children aware of the role of play in their mathematics learning?My method is based on interviews and observations. My informants are three teachers who work in two different preschools.

By means of text creation I approach, reflect upon and try a number of aspects of my own professional existence as a joker in forum theatre and as a forum play pedagogue.This essay is structured like the days of a week and it specifically relates three problematic situations: first, a Monday containing a case of discrimination during the performance, then, a glimpse from a Wednesday when I failed to use the time with enough consideration of our common work and, finally, a Thursday when I was professionally questioned.These three situations are described thoroughly and then they are tried by me. This is carried out partly by reasoning, partly by using for example sociological, pedagogical and above all philosophical texts in order to widen my understanding of my existence as joker and forum play pedagogue. When writing this essay I really realized the importance of taking the reactions of the spec-tators into consideration. I have had the opportunity to develop thoughts about the way in which reflection is created and thoughts about different layers of reflection. I have also pondered over the way in which I distinguish between forum play and therapy as a forum play pedagogue.

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the availability of construction materials affect children's constructions and play. Observations were made when the children were allowed to play and build with very little and much of the material play-doh dough in preschool. The study is aimed at children aged 3 ? 5 years. Interviews were also conducted with educators in departments where the children spent time to give support to this study.The result shows that the children create as many designs of any material amount.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how out-pedagogy, drama and art can be used as means of promoting language development of bi-and multi-language learners, and to show what benefits these three methods offer to children of year three of an elementary school in Stockholm City. This is a small survey of work-style and the results are based on observations and interviews with five teachers which included three class teachers, one resource teacher and one other language teacher and it was carried out two full days of observations in both classroom and outdoor environment. In this work, I note how out-pedagogy, drama and art can help bi- and multilingual children develop language. My study shows, in accordance with the respondents interviewed, as well as research in general that out-pedagogy, drama and art is language development practices. They argue that out-pedagogy and the aesthetic elements promote language development of bi- and multilingual children in different ways and complements the traditional approach.

This paper is intending to examine the intercultural aspects of two teaching aids used in Swedish schools today. How does the material take the students prerequisite in consideration? Is every student included in the material in order with the standpoint and laws in the Swedish school system? And if they are not, who is the outsider in this occasion? With intercultural pedagogy lies the idea that everyone is unique and that teachers has an opportunity to develop and make student grow mentally. Intercultural endeavor is to learn to accept our differences and see them as assets instead. The theory?s used in this paper in mostly the postcolonial theory with its dividing between "us" and "the others"..

A reward cycle for investigating the emotional status in animals has been developed and it requires that animals go through three main phases, i.e. anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The reward cycle has not been tested previously for access to play in pigs. Therefore, the aim of this Master thesis was to investigate if growing pigs showed more behaviours indicative of excitement than pigs that were not allowed to play, performed play in a play arena and showed more behaviours indicative of relaxation after play when they were back to their home pen than pigs that were in their home pen the whole time. Forty undocked piglets (10 litters of Specific Pathogen Free half pure-bred Yorkshire and half hybrids of Yorkshire x Landrace balanced for breed between two treatments were used.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge and a broader understanding for how pre-school teachers describe the importance of planned play environments including in what manner children are given influence. By qualitative interviews with five pre-school teachers from four different units I was able to gather data that shows how the planning process concerning a specific play environment had worked and why it looked as it did. The results show among other things that the pre-school teachers viewed the play environment as a vital part of the daily operation and pointed out that it was of vital importance that it came from the children?s interests. Depending on how the play environment had been organized and what its purpose was it offered different amounts of affordances..

Abstract   In this thesis, my aim was to investigate how preschool teachers view their involvement in children's free play. In order to answer this, I chose to do semi-structured interviews with four preschool teachers in three different preschools. My interviews has revealed similarities and support for as how history of research looks at the involvement of educationists. Both research and my results stresses the importance of being active in children's free play and to be a supportive teacher, particulary in conflict situations. For those children who have difficulty entering into the free game its the educationists task to co-play and help the children find the game.

Med hjälp av denna vetenskapliga essä undersöker jag hur man kan uppmärksamma och värna leken och glädjen i musicerandet med förskolebarn. Detta belyser jag inte enbart ur barnens perspektiv utan även ur mitt eget och mina kollegors. Med hjälp av berättelser från min vardag på förskolan och utifrån min praktiska kunskap, ger jag en bild av hur detta kan te sig. Dessa berättelser är ett fundament för mina vidare reflektioner. Vad lek och leklust är skärskådar jag genom att bena upp begreppen i mindre beståndsdelar.

According to the Läroplan för förskolan, Lpfö 98, are pre-schools suppose to introduce the written language and embrace childrens curiosity about the ability to communicate with the written language. The purpose with this research is therefor to study the attitudes of pre-school teachers towards three- to five years olds writing and also to shred some light over which role teachers and other adults have when children learn to write. The earlier research contains different theories about how children in pre-schools conquer the written language and the teachers role in this process. Teachers attitudes towards and thoughts about childrens early writing could be made visible through interviews with teachers who all currently work at pre-schools. The results indicate that pre-school teachers have different attitudes towards childrens early attempts to write.

The purpose of my study is to describe how educators think about the play environment, the nature and its importance for the children's development and learning in preschool. The study is based on qualitative interviews with four active educators. The results of the study show that the teachers regarded the children's interests to a great extent when the different play environments were structured. They are also based on different themes that they have seen that the children were interested in, such as the fire station, hair salon or shop and café. Educators designing not only these play areas for different types of play for the children, but the different environments also have a learning purpose. The outdoor environment however attracts greater interest from children, to where they have more space to move freely in and outdoors, there are no limits to the children.

Free play is a term that often common in educational activities. The definition of the term is difficult, but it is about the children themselves decides the scope, content and process in their play. On an after-school, this may mean that it is the children are given the opportunity to freely choose their own activity in the leisure constraints. Free play can be an alternative to other, more controlled activities where adults control framework. The purpose of this study is to investigate the variations in how some children perceive and experience the phenomenon of free play in the after-school and how the children perceive the teacher´s role in the free game.