Oulu University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Social Services ______________________________________________________________ Authors: Halunen, Anu & Keinänen, Irja Title of thesis: Strengthening Participation of Children in Yard Project in Savotta-aukio Kindergarten Supervisors: Koivisto, Markku & Kokko, Seija Term and year when the thesis was submitted: Autumn 2015 Number of pages: 54 + 5 appendices ______________________________________________________________ Children have a legal right to take part in matters concerning their lives. In this thesis we have combined the participation of children and a kindergarten yard as a concrete object in developing children’s operational environment. We use Shier’s Pathways to Participation as a theoretical background in actualizing and strengthening the participation of children. This project was conducted in collaboration with Savotta-aukio Kindergarten.

The aim of this thesis was to strengthen the participation of children and the purpose was to find out what sort of outside operational environment is meaningful to children.

This thesis is a practical project that was managed by conducting different child orientated methods to a group of children aged 4-5. These methods were Gåtur Walk, tasks with maps, storycrafting and workshops where the children produced a map of their ideal kindergarten yard and models of their favourite playground objects. As a product of our project we executed an orienteering session as a part of the spring celebration of the kindergarten. Other children groups also took part in executing the orienteering session.

The participation of children was actualized and strengthened by taking part in our project. The children were given an opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions about their ideal kindergarten yard. The wishes and ideas of children on developing the yard were listened to and used as a base when executing the orienteering session. The children had also an opportunity to take part in planning, executing and building the orienteering track.

This project also allowed the participation of the other children groups in the kindergarten, since the orienteering was executed in collaboration in the whole Savotta-aukio kindergarten.

Keywords: the participation of children, child-orientated activity, early childhood education environment, yard orienteering