The goal for the project is two-dimensional
We want to make our research as a part of the lessons we give to part time student in preschool teacher education over a year. At the same time we want to improve our knowledge about children`s physical play. Our teaching in physical education deal with themes like motor function and physical play for children in kindergartens.

The main questions are:
• How can teacher educators involve their students in research projects during their teaching?
• Which factors hinder or promote physical play in kindergartens?

Theory
We have a phenomenological approach (Mearleau-Ponty 1994) and are interested in children and movements. As far as we know there is not done many researches about physical play, neither in Norway nor international (Oliver mfl 2007). This kind of play has low status among preschool teachers` pedagogical work (Rasmussen 1996).
Some studies have found that children are less physical active than the authorities recommend (Giske mf. 2010 og Oliver mfl 2007).
Knowledge about which factors influence the physical play will be very important for the adaption for this way of playing in the kindergartens.

Design and method
The students will use a moment – to moment observation scheme for their observation of one child in their workplace. This scheme is modified after “The Observational System-Preschool / OSRAC-P” (McIver et al 2009). All the students are involved in preparing and testing the scheme before they will obtain and processing/discussing the data.

References:
Giske, R., Tjensvoll, M og Dyrstad, S. M. (2010): ”Fysisk aktivitet i barnehagen
Et casestudium av daglig fysisk aktivitet i en avdeling med 5-åringer”. Nordisk
barnehageforskning, 2010. vol 3 nr 2 side 53–62.

McIver, K. L, Brown,W. H., Pfeiffer,K.Q. A., Dowda M. and Pate, R. R (2009):”Assessing Children's Physical Activity in Their Homes: The Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children–Home.” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2009, 42, 1-16

Mearleau-Ponty, M. (1994); Kroppens fenomenologi, Oslo; Pax Forlag

Oliver, M, Schofield, G. og Kolt, G. S (2007): ”Physical Activity in Preschoolers. Understanding Prevalence and measurement issues”. Sportsmed 2007:37 (12):1045-1070

Keywords: Teaching, recearch, student involving, physical play and observation.