Korleis utartar den dramatiske leiken seg for dei eldste borna i barnehagen i eit utrom med tilgang på vatn?

Abstract

The Framework Plan for the Norwegian Kindergartens (2017) states that the kindergarten shall contribute so that all children have equal opportunities to experiences of joy, humour, excitement, and commitment through play - alone and together with others. The kindergartens shall inspire children’s play both indoors and outdoors. Research on dramatic play in kindergartens have mainly looked at play indoors. This research will investigate dramatic play at a site-specific place in the woods, where there is a stream of water that flows into a mud hole and on the other side of this mud hole the stream continues in the landscape. This site is also hilly. It challenges moving around, and on rainy days it has quite slippery, muddy slopes and dense vegetation. I work as an educational leader in a municipal kindergarten. I have a special attachment to this place and use this space as an extended part of the kindergarten. The landscape stimulates versatile play. I link my connectedness to this place to my own childhood when I used to play in the puddle with mud and clay in the tracks from the big tractors, on the farm where I grew up. At the site-specific place there is little man-made toys, just a small section of buckets, spades, scoops and silicon muffin tins. The site has a started gapahuk and a mine to cook in. This master thesis investigates children play at this site; and how does the element and the concretes play a role in their dramatic play. The research has a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach. Data is collected through video observation, interviews, and logs. The findings will be analysed and discussed with relevant theories from Drama and other research that focus on play in the outdoors. This study has collected a rich material. It finds that the children are drawn to the muddy area. The play activities are varied, they can be activities that relate to the outdoors; like fishing, checking the ice, digging holes, etc. But they can also be family play, café play and kitchen play. The children move between different play themes and play mates. Children and adults who are imaginative and enter the fictional frame bodily tends to inspire other children.