Förskolors inställning till och användning avstadens natur :

Sammanfattning: This master thesis is made in co-operation with the Department of Forest Management and Products at the Swedish University of Agriculture in Uppsala and the Forestry Association in Stockholm. The purpose of the Master thesis was to describe how pre-schools in Sweden use forests and green areas, and to understand how different factors can affect the use of the nature. The purpose of the interviews was to create a picture of attitudes and routines of the pre-schools, in the matter of visiting the nature. The thesis is built on interviews where fifteen pre-schools in five large cities around Sweden participated. Among these pre-schools, five of them worked with special focus on nature, while the other ten did not have any particular focus connected to their activity. The attitude towards visiting the nature was positive among all fifteen pre-schools. The most mentioned reason why not visiting the nature was the lack of staff members. On the contrary, the results from the investigation show that the connection between the number of children by employed and visiting the nature is weak. Firm routines, sleeping-nap and playing together with the power of habits seem to be other obstructions. Those pre-schools that are situated near green areas visit the nature more often than those pre-schools with a longer distance to the nature. In a dream environment would the pre-schools, according to the study, wish to have more variations in the landscape. Rough terrain, water, bushes and trees are the most wanted contents. The highest wish among the pre-schools was nearness to nature. The shape of nature was less important in the dream environment. Most important thing was that nature is available. All pre-schools have experienced positive effects with the children in relation to visiting nature. The most obvious effects experienced by the staff vary, but many of the teachers caught similar impressions. Conclusions from the investigation show that visiting the nature is closely related to the amount of personal interest that the teachers have when it comes to nature. As a pre-school teacher it is difficult to motivate one self to bring half a dousing of children out in the nature, when you do not get any satisfaction your self from being there.