The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the time and place of outdoor motor play and the actual physical environment used by 1–2-year-olds in urban nursery in Tokyo, as well as the consciousness of nursery teachers toward outdoor motor play, which may have an influence on these factors. The survey was administered by questionnaire, and responses were received from 228 teachers in 63 nurseries, 115 classes. The median duration of outdoor play was found to be 40.0 minutes, but there is a large variation among nurseries and classes. In this study, approximately 20 different types of physical environment were used, but there is a bias toward “sandboxes and sandbox play equipment” and “playground conditions, nature and equipment”, suggesting that there is also a bias in the movements experienced during play. In addition, the teachers expressed priorities with regard to “enrichment of the physical environment,” “enrichment of motor play,” and “emphasis on movement,” which positively influenced outdoor motor play time and the degree of enrichment of the physical environment, while “emphasis on rules instruction” negatively influenced such play. It is important to balance the teaching of rules and the enrichment of overall motor play.

  In this study, based on the results of a survey on the life conditions of high school students, we analyzed the relationship between changes in life, various aspects of mental health, and life conditions, due to the after reopening of schools. The following three points were clarified. (1) A strong relationship was observed between an increase in students' willingness to go to school, an increase or decrease in the ease of consulting with teachers, an increase or decrease in the amount of time spent talking with friends, and an increase or decrease in the feeling of having fun. (2) It was shown that there is a relationship between increased motivation to go to school and good sleep, home learning and home environment, and whether or not to skip breakfast, confirming the importance of establishing lifestyle in the COVID-19. (3) Students who were more motivated to go to school had lower levels of sleep disturbance, Internet dependence, and SDQ, and higher SDQ and QOL. From the above, in order to increase students' willingness to go to school and maintain and improve their mental health, it is hoped that the establishment of lifestyle and the enhancement of counseling services by specialists will be established.

  TThe purpose of this study is to clarify the expected effects of an experiential program through "making things" using paper crafts in the Period of Integrated Study from the perspective of inquiry-based learning. This is a cross-curricular workshop-type class in which fifth graders learn experientially through prototyping and actual production by assembling paper crafts modeled on the school building of the elementary school they attend. This class was conducted in collaboration with Sapporo Art no Mori Elementary School and the Faculty of Design, Sapporo City University. Text mining techniques were used to analyze the students' free writing as reflections on their work. The results showed that many of the verbs were related to making crafts, and many of the words expressed a positive attitude toward the task of making crafts. In addition, words such as "devise," "add," "idea," and "imagination" indicated that the children were engaged in the crafts with these words in mind, even though they found them difficult. This indicates that by incorporating a hands-on program through paper crafting, the students were more proactive in their approach from the perspective of inquiry-based learning. In addition, we were able to extract key words for this approach.

  Japanese children who are worried about being busy in a competitive society, urgently need to consider specific ways to enrich their free time. This study aimed to examine how to spend time after school to cause a sense of satisfaction in daily free time. The subjects were 965 elementary school students in Grades 3 to 6. Using a self-administered questionnaire, we asked about sex, grade, time spent in after-school activities, desires, and satisfaction with free time. Thereafter, we analyzed the relationship between satisfaction and how students spend their time after school. As a result, we can confirm with a high degree of satisfaction that with leisure time among those who did “studying,” “outdoor play,” and “talking with family,” those who answered “I wanted to do” were higher than those who answered “I didn’t want to do.” In activities such as “indoor play” and “lessons,” we cannot confirm their relationship. The results suggest that being able to engage in activities that require people to do together, have a place to gather, and a feasible time to “want to do” may give rise to a sense of satisfaction in free time.

  Japanese mothers with children ranging in age from 1 to 10 years old participated in an online study to examine the frequency of children getting lost while out with their parents, the locations where lost children often occur, the sequence in which they occur, and the child's reaction when they reunite with their parents. Results showed that the percentage of lost children appearing at age 1 increased from 4.3% to 10.6% at age 2, and remained around 10% until age 5, after which it dropped to 1.9% at age 6. Multiple correspondence analysis revealed three main phases of lost children (1-2, 3-5, 6 and older): (1) the child is lost when the parents take their eyes off the child, (2) the child is distracted by surrounding objects while the parent and child move apart from each other, the distance increases, and thus the child is lost, and (3) the parent and child do not reunite successfully as a result of their separate activities. It was discussed that lost children are a unique phenomenon in Japan, which is highly safe and secure, and that it is an intriguing topic related to the surrounding physical environment and parent-child mutual independence.

  Aquariums should play a role in learning about living animals, ecosystems, and the environment. Young children need to develop a mental image of water bodies such as oceans, rivers, and lakes as habitats for aquatic animals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of young children's aquarium viewing behavior on their mental images of water bodies. Field observations and projective methods in an aquarium are used to examine the possibility that improving viewing behavior can reduce children's psychological distance from the water bodies and increase their interest in and understanding of them. The results suggest that psychological distance can be reduced by increasing the number of "pointing at the tank," an active viewing behavior toward aquatic animals and the water bodies. We assume that the more often they point to an object, the more they like it and feel familiar with it. The results also suggest that the increasing frequency of " touching the tank," a viewing behavior that enhances interaction with the surroundings, increases interest in them. We believe that young children's learning in aquariums can be enhanced by active and interactive viewing of aquatic animals, water bodies, and humans.