Integrating mathematics with children's literature has emerged as a promising approach in early mathematics education. This study explores the use of the picture book Just a Little Bit (Tompert, 1997) as a pedagogical tool for introducing the concept of mass measurement to preschool children. The aim of the study was to design and implement story-based mathematical activities inspired by the narrative and to examine children's engagement and emerging understanding of mass comparison. The study involved 24 children aged 4–5 years attending a kindergarten in Slovenia. Six structured activities were conducted over a three-week period. Data were collected through systematic observation and analysis of children's drawings representing balance scales.The results indicate that the story stimulated children's interest and supported their engagement in measurement-related activities. Most children were able to distinguish between heavier and lighter objects and recognize the basic function of a balance scale, although only a small proportion accurately represented the direction of imbalance in their drawings. The findings suggest that children's literature can provide a meaningful context for introducing early mathematical concepts when combined with hands-on activities and guided discussion.
Nature exploration fosters children’s cognitive development and environmental awareness; however, kindergarten curricula are often constrained by limited resources and repetitive interaction, leaving children’s observations only weakly integrated into structured understanding and expression. We present Botune, an AI-supported creative-expression tool for kindergarten planting activities that integrates plant observation, drawing, spoken narration, and animation-based sharing. We conducted an exploratory, fixed-order within-participant study in kindergarten planting classes with 27 children and three educators; 24 complete cases were analysed after excluding data from three children who did not complete the drawing task. The traditional activity preceded the Botune-supported activity by seven days. The proportion of activity time spent observing and teacher-rated involvement scores during sharing were higher in the later session. The later narrations contained significantly more actions and character interactions; character counts were descriptively higher but did not remain statistically significant after Holm correction, and state- or emotion-related expressions did not differ significantly. These semantic counts index narrative elaboration rather than overall narrative quality or general narrative ability. These differences cannot be attributed to Botune alone. Scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding were not directly assessed by these measures. The study offers exploratory observations and design considerations for AI-supported narrative expression in kindergarten nature learning.
کاوش در طبیعت به رشد شناختی و آگاهی زیست‌محیطی کودکان کمک می‌کند؛ با این حال، برنامه‌های درسی مهدکودک‌ها اغلب به دلیل منابع محدود و تعاملات تکراری، با محدودیت مواجه‌اند و مشاهدات کودکان به‌طور ضعیفی درک و بیان ساختاریافته را شکل می‌دهد. در این پژوهش، Botune، یک ابزار خلاقیت‌محور مبتنی بر هوش مصنوعی برای فعالیت‌های کاشت در مهدکودک معرفی می‌شود که مشاهده‌ی گیاه، نقاشی، روایت شفاهی و به‌اشتراک‌گذاری مبتنی بر پویانمایی را یکپارچه می‌کند. یک مطالعه‌ی اکتشافی با طرح درون‌گروهی با ترتیب ثابت در کلاس‌های کاشت مهدکودک با حضور ۲۷ کودک و سه مربی انجام شد؛ پس از حذف داده‌های سه کودک که وظیفه‌ی نقاشی را کامل نکردند، ۲۴ مورد کامل مورد تحلیل قرار گرفت. فعالیت سنتی هفت روز پیش از فعالیت پشتیبانی‌شده با Botune انجام شد. نسبت زمان صرف‌شده برای مشاهده و امتیازهای مشارکت از دید مربی در زمان به‌اشتراک‌گذاری در جلسه‌ی دوم بالاتر بود. روایت‌های جلسه‌ی دوم به‌طور معناداری شامل کنش‌ها و تعاملات شخصیتی بیشتری بودند؛ شمار شخصیت‌ها به‌صورت توصیفی بالاتر بود اما پس از اصلاح Holm از لحاظ آماری معنادار باقی نماند و بیان‌های مرتبط با وضعیت یا هیجان تفاوت معناداری نداشتند. این شمارش‌های معنایی شاخص بسط روایت هستند و نه کیفیت کلی روایت یا توانایی عمومی روایت‌گری. این تفاوت‌ها را نمی‌توان صرفاً به Botune نسبت داد. دانش علمی و درک مفهومی به‌طور مستقیم با این سنجه‌ها ارزیابی نشد. این مطالعه مشاهدات اکتشافی و ملاحظات طراحی برای بیان روایی پشتیبانی‌شده با هوش مصنوعی در یادگیری طبیعت در مهدکودک ارائه می‌دهد.
