Experiences of Young Children Who Participated in Wordplay Children's Poetry Activities

This study aimed to determine the experiences of young children who participated in wordplay children's poetry activities. To this end, a single case study was conducted for 16 weeks with 44 children aged 4 years and 2 homeroom teachers in a private kindergarten in City I. Data were collected directly from the early childhood education site, including children's photos, videos, interviews, poetry activity plans and evaluations, and children's activity results. Data analysis used an ecological approach to select meaningful cases related to the research purpose, and then categorize and classify the relevant cases. The final categories are imagining by looking at pictures in the poems, expanding wordplay poems into play, and various wordplay representation activities. The research results showed that first, children could appreciate wordplay poems and enjoy the contents of the poems in different ways. Second, the children expanded the wordplay poetry activities into play. Third, the children became interested in creating poems through various wordplay poetry activities. Based on the research results, the study is meaningful in presenting multiple teaching methods of children's poetry activities, related cases, and the educational significance of wordplay children's poetry activities through early childhood experiences.