Interação da criança com elementos da natureza na educação infantil em Barão de Cotegipe/RS

Abstract

The research proposes a study on children interaction with nature and its elements in the school environment, aiming to investigate how children interact with it in preschool and kindergarten. It is known that staying inside rooms is very present in children`s daily lives, and the school environment, especially the playground, spaces that enhance this contact with nature, as long as they are recognized for its purpose. In the elementar school, this topic is articulated with the Environmental Education works that need to be present and articulated at all levels of education, having an interdisciplinary, transversal, and continuous character. For the theoretical basis of this research, Fedrizzi (1999), Horn (2014), Louv (2016) and Reigota (2009) were used as main authors. The methodology used in this research is qualitative in nature with the use of bibliographic, documentary and field research. The bibliographic research took place through the search of books, articles, dissertations and theses that address the research topic. Documentary analysis took place through reading the Political Pedagogical Project of the schools involved. The field research took place in two stages, the first was developed through visiting the schools playground, where a survey of their main elements and characteristics was carried out, and the second stage happened through interviews with six teachers who work in PreSchool and Kindergarten. Data were analyzed using the Discursive Textual Analysis methodology. The research results reinforce the argument of the importance of children having contact with nature, and the benefits that this interaction provides for their integral development. It was noticed that the Preschool and Kindergarten children from the schools involved in the research have contact with nature and its elements in two ways: in the classroom through investigative contexts, through make-believe play, graphics, constructions, among others, and in open-air spaces such as playground and other environments close to the school (squares, private lands). The playground of both schools are rich in resources and elements, enabling powerful experiences, interactions, experimentation and living, but one of them has a greater variety of vegetation, fruit trees, evergreens and deciduous trees, as well as the presence of an aquatic ecosystem. It is recommended to carry out a planning of the playgrounds of the schools involved, as well as teacher training programs that address this issue.