Play is an important part of children´s everyday life, it is through play children develop. Play occurs a lot in kindergarten and in this study, the aim is to examine how play activities play is used in preschool teaching and the role of the teacher´s in the play. Video recordings of play activities done and qualitative methods (conversation analysis) has been used to analyze the video recordings. The results of this study show that play are widely used as a pedagogical tool in preschool. It is through play children develop.

Play is an important part of children´s everyday life, it is through play children develop. Play occurs a lot in kindergarten and in this study, the aim is to examine how play activities play is used in preschool teaching and the role of the teacher´s in the play. Video recordings of play activities done and qualitative methods (conversation analysis) has been used to analyze the video recordings. The results of this study show that play are widely used as a pedagogical tool in preschool. It is through play children develop.

As a leisure time pedagogue I find it hard to have an insight into what children are playing, and how they play when it comes to free play. My experience is that in some free play, conflicts arise, which reveal hierarchies and power structures containing violations, whereas other occasions of free play suddenly come to an end as the pedagogue interferes. In this essay I investigate my responsibility as a leisure time pedagogue during children´s free play, based on two differing play situations. I also investigate the play as a phenomenon by looking into previous research on children?s play and development psychology.

 This essay is about how the educators can use the play as a tool to develop childrens social skills with eachother. The work is based on a qualitative study using a survey, where the educators can tell how they work within the play. I chose to use five different participants in my essay. All of them work in the same preschool, south of Stockholm.In this essay I have two questions. These two are:What do the educators tell about the importance of play for children's interaction?How do the educators tell how they work with the play to develop the children?s social interaction?Previous research shows that play gives the children opportunity to develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

 This essay is about how the educators can use the play as a tool to develop childrens social skills with eachother. The work is based on a qualitative study using a survey, where the educators can tell how they work within the play. I chose to use five different participants in my essay. All of them work in the same preschool, south of Stockholm.In this essay I have two questions. These two are:What do the educators tell about the importance of play for children's interaction?How do the educators tell how they work with the play to develop the children?s social interaction?Previous research shows that play gives the children opportunity to develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

The purpose with this study was to find out about the preschool toddler?s peer-cultures. I also wanted to understand how these peer-cultures were shown.My questions are as following:What is it that the children interpretive and reproduce in their play?How do children gain access to play?How do children exclude each other?What position of status can be seen in children´s play?I used observations as the method to find the answer to these questions. These observations where implemented during five occasions at two different preschools.

AbstractIn this essay, I have performed a study on peer cultures and how these peer cultures are expressed in a group of pre-school children. My questions are as following:What positions/power positions can be seen in children?s play, and how will these be expressed?How do the children gain access to play?How do children act when they want to exclude other children?In order to understand this I have chosen to do observations as a method. In order to investigate these questions I chose to spend six whole mornings with a group of pre-school children, closely observing their behavior. The focus was on children, three years of age or older.

By using the children's own thoughts and stories this theses aim to investigate and illustrate the phenomenon of rough and tumble play and its existence among five year olds in preschool.    The formulations of the questions are:What do children consider as rough and tumble play? - and what characterise that?From without a perspective of rough and tumble play, which kinds of rough and tumble play do the children play in preschool? - and how do those characterise?What makes rough and tumble play possible and accepted for the children to play in preschool?In this thesis I have investigated the questions above by interviewing 11 five years olds about how they consider rough and tumble play in preschool. From without Birgitta Knutsdotter Olofsson's and Torben Hangaard Rasmussen's view about play and rough and tumble play I created a perspective of rough and tumble play, which I used for analyzing the empirics. With rough and tumble play I mean games or plays that includes wrestling, hitting, kicking, pushing, chasing, running or/and the use of weapons against other human beings or other visualized beings or/and human beings.The conclusions are that children has many different opinions of what rough and tumble play is. Depends on who you are asking you will get a different perspective.

This study is about the preschool environment. Earlier studies show that preschool environment affect children?s development and learning. This study will exemplify the perspective of active preschool teachers of how they see at preschool play environment. The aim of this study is to bring insight and understanding on how preschool teachers see upon their play environment and the play that occurs.

The purpose of my study is to examine how four preschool teachers go about using the term play in children's early mathematical development. In order to fulfill the purpose of this study, I have the following questions:How the preschool teachers visualize mathematics in children?s play?What reflections have the preschool teachers about the importance of play for children's mathematical learning in preschool?How do the preschool teachers see on their own role in the children's play?In this study, I have conducted a semi-structured qualitative interviews based on the interviews with four preschool teachers from various departments in a preschool. I have also conducted some observations to complete my study. Whereas in my analysis of the researched material, I have used Vygotsky's theory.The survey shows that the preschool teachers are aware of the use of mathematical language and concepts in children?s different activities which were conducted daily in the preschool.

The study which has been made is a qualitative observational study where play forms and participation of adults were observed in two preschools. The word play is defined in the study with an ?as-if? ?nature based on Knutsdotters definition which differs play and activities from each other. The observed play form has been analyzed according to the concept of imitation and imagination play. To get a complete base of the study a few children on some occasions drew what they played or would like to play.Through photographs of these drawings and how the children described and explained what they drew a connection could be made with the children?s play forms.

Through interviews with children of ages 4-5 years old and by observing children children at play at three preschools with different types of outdoor surroundings, I have investigated if the preschools outdoor surroundings have any influences on the children´ choice of play. The hypothesis was that natural surroundings can entice children´s interest in nature being in it and play. I have also investigated if the children know why it is important to be outdoors and if they know it has a positive influence on their health.The result of my investigation is that the children play about the same games at the three different preschool gardens, but at the preschool with more natural surroundings, the children have more contact with plants and animals, and could learn of the different phenomena of nature by the preschool teacher answering their questions. Most of the children in the interviews know it´s useful to be outdoors and be on the move and get fresh air, but many of them thought it was most important to play. By being outdoors the children get exercise, fresh air, play and at the same time they establish an understanding of the nature and a healthier life..

The aim of this project was to develop a product which gives one or more objects of daily use an additional function. Thru the creativity of children the object shall transform into a new source for play for pre-school children.The purpose of this work was to research how fantasy and free play of children could be enhanced. I wanted to know how I can motivate children to use their fantasy transforming objects into new sources for play.This was achieved by means of developing a number of different prototypes which I tested in Kindergarden. My observations lead to the development of a cloth-wrap for the chair which provides the required source for ongoing role-play. The chair suddenly transforms into a new landscape and multi-purpose object where children?s fantasy is stimulated and creative play is supported..

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 essay is a philosophical investigation of the relation between children and their play. My aim is to see if children are autonomous when it comes to their play. Is there a moral boundary between those who take part in the play and those who do not? This topic is especially important when it comes to the moral status of a child in the Swedish pre-school. How should educationists act when it comes to children?s play?  Through an analysis of the notions of play and autonomy I show that play can be understood as something of a moral value to the child and if children should be seen as autonomous when it comes to their play.