Abstract:The functioning of every educational institution is determined by the curriculum whose orientation shapes the aims, content, strategies and procedures of accomplishing the process of education in a special way. One of the aspects of the development that occupies a significant place in the pre-school curriculum is physical education and its activities. As the organization of physical activities is different in educational institutions for pre-school children in Serbia and abroad, the paper offers an analysis of physical activities in the curricula of the pre-school institutions in Canada, the USA, Montenegro and Serbia. The comparative analysis of the selected curricula leads to a conclusion that the organization of physical activities of children in our pre-school institutions needs to be innovated in some ways. In order to achieve a better quality of the organization of physical activities of preschool children it is necessary to innovate and strengthen the pre-school curriculum of the Republic of Serbia in the following aspects: motivation and development of competences of pre-school teachers in charge of children's physical activities; organization of activities adapted to the child's individual and current competences and abilities; development of children's cognitive knowledge with respect to physical activities, as well as the significance of physical activities for the development and health of the body; and most importantly, children's success in the activities that they perform. Key words: physical activity, pre-school age, innovations, contemporary curriculum.
IntroductionConstantly increasing differences in the material and social sense between the "natural" setting and the urban setting where today's man lives also increase the significance of well organized and permanent procedures in physical education. Since the urban environment on the one hand imposes many limitations and, on the other, is quite comfortable, this decreases the need for motion as well as the immunity of the human body, which necessarily implies a demand for the protection against unfavourable influences and securement of favourable conditions for a normal physical growth and development, as well as the improvement of physical and mental health of children at a young age (Kamenov, 2006).The significance of physical activities was also recognized in the Basis of the curriculum of the educational work with pre-school children (Osnove programa predškolskog vaspitanja i obrazovanja dece uzrasta od tri do sedam godina, 1996). All the segments of the General bases of the pre-school curriculum are oriented towards the humanistic understanding of the child's nature and his/her physical and spiritual development. The essential determinant is that the child is valuable in him/herself, that he/she bears potential for development in him/herself, and that he/she is also a factor of his/her own development, socialization and education. The General bases of the pre-school curriculum start with a child as a physical, cognitive, social an...