The modern school garden as an educational space

Abstract

School gardens have been an important element in the education of children for centuries. Historical documents show that throughout history the use of school gardens in the education of children has been sought and recommended. Today's modern kindergartens pay considerable attention to school gardens and their facilities. The school gardens of today's kindergartens create a natural and inspiring environment for pre-school children, providing them with a range of play and educational elements not only for play but also for their holistic development. The present text maps the most common play and educational elements found in the school gardens of contemporary kindergartens. Furthermore, we focus on the use of kindergarten school gardens in pre-school education. A short questionnaire was developed for this purpose. A total of 40 randomly selected kindergartens from the Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc, Zlín regions and the capital city of Prague were selected for the research investigation. The selection of individual kindergartens was completely random. The results of the survey showed that in the school gardens of current kindergartens, in addition to clas­sical play elements, garden educational elements focused on environmental education and nature protection are increasingly appearing. The school gardens of today's kindergartens thus create an inspiring and stimulating educational environment for pre-school children.