Material is the material carrier of educational intention, and its own characteristics and activities defined by these characteristics often determine what kind of learning experience children may get and what aspects of development they may get. According to the development needs of children's cognition, emotion, movement, language and sociality, from the perspective of children, from the perspective of children's psychology, we will create different forms of regional activities for children, such as role area, science area, art area, language area, woodworking area and sports area, and provide children with places to do activities and opportunities to display their talents according to their own interests and abilities.
Generally speaking, each activity area has some basic and relatively stable materials. Such as building block area: large and medium-sized building blocks. If necessary, there can be some auxiliary materials, such as canned food and various animal shapes.
Role-playing area: various clothes, props, furniture, etc. Their use can be changed as needed.
Science area: magnifying glass, scales, rulers, magnets and other tools and various materials suitable for children to explore.
Business area: desktop building blocks, plastic pieces and other puzzles, beading, puzzles, and various math learning tools.
Language area: books, tape recorders, story tapes, puppets, headdresses, etc.
Art area: paper, pens, plasticine, glue, scissors, all kinds of empty cartons and other production materials.
Book area: all kinds of interesting books.
However, the materials in the activity area are not static, and some materials belonging to the activity content often need to change according to the children's ability.
Second, pay attention to the safety of active substances.
The "Guidelines for Kindergarten Education" clearly points out that "kindergartens must put the protection of children's lives and the promotion of children's health at the top of their work." This is enough to show the importance of safety work in kindergarten life. Similarly, in the production and delivery of regional materials, safety should be the first. Although children have certain self-protection ability, experience in participating in regional activities and strong sense of rules, they don't need to be in the teacher's sight all the time, but they are children after all. Reducing and eliminating unsafe factors in the environment is the most basic requirement for the regional environment.
When providing sports materials for children, we should choose non-toxic, tasteless and harmless raw materials, and thoroughly clean and disinfect them before making them. Some bottles, boxes and cans are collected by children from home. We must not ignore the residue inside. Over time, it will be moldy and full of bacteria. Therefore, teachers must do a good job of hygiene with children, and wash the collected bottles, boxes, cans and other items before using them to avoid accidents. Hard and primitive cans and packing boxes can be decorated and decorated with auxiliary materials such as colored paper and ribbon. You can also choose soft wrapping paper, art paper, etc. for artistic treatment, so that it has educational function and fully displays its artistry. In order to attract children to be interested in activity materials and actively participate in activities, it is conducive to the smooth development of regional activities.
Besides the safety of active materials, we should also pay attention to the safety of active environment. For example, the furniture should be stable, and the hook for hanging clothes should be slightly higher than the child's head.
Third, put in educational materials.
The educational value of regional activities mainly depends on the homework materials in the region. Different materials will lead to different operation methods and activities, and children's learning experience will be different during the activities. This makes different activity areas have their own unique educational functions.
For example, fully excavating the connotation of building blocks placed in the operation area (mathematics area) can reflect various educational values, mainly depending on the structural characteristics of the building blocks themselves and the various activities that can be triggered.
Building blocks are composed of standard basic geometric shapes, and there is a strict proportional relationship between each shape in a group of building blocks. For example, the side length of a cube is either equal to the length of one side of a cuboid or equal to half or a quarter of it; The edge of a triangle must be equal to the edge of a cube or cuboid, and the thickness of a thin cube must be half or a quarter of that of a thick cube; The diameter and length of the cylinder must also find its corresponding "partner" ... This structural feature of the building block makes it an excellent material for children to learn mathematics and develop their cognitive ability. The educational value of building block area also depends on the "openness" characteristics of building blocks. First of all, building blocks are highly "plastic" and infinitely "combinable". Unit building blocks are very simple but basic shapes, which can be said to be a high generalization and abstraction of the shapes of various actual objects, so people can "restore" it with the help of some imagination, that is, give it various practical meanings, which is the so-called "plasticity" meaning. For example, an upright cuboid can be imagined as a person and a building; Think of a triangle as a mountain, a slide, a canopy and a roof. It is precisely because building blocks are the most basic geometric shapes, and their functions do not need to be fixed on some specific objects or structures, so that they can be combined indefinitely, one by one, and reassembled repeatedly. When children put a building block in a different position and give it different meanings, children's creative thinking ability and creative potential are fully exerted, which is the "openness" of building blocks in cognition.
Secondly, building blocks (especially big blocks) often requires interaction and cooperation between children, which can be said to be "openness" in the sociological sense. Such as actively seeking each other's help and support in materials, hoping to build cooperation, * * * agreeing on the theme, coordinating division of labor and cooperation, etc. And learn how to control your behavior, how to deal with interpersonal relationships, how to solve contradictions, etc. , are essential for children's social development.
Four, put the activity materials should be hierarchical and operable.
Every child's cognitive level, experience and ability are different, and the biggest feature of the activity area is that it can provide an activity environment suitable for children with different abilities and interests. Therefore, according to the physical and mental characteristics of children of different ages, different levels of activity materials should be put in the activity area to achieve a targeted goal. When placing materials, we should pay attention to providing materials with different difficulties, and make the materials "fine" according to the requirements of from shallow to deep and from easy to difficult, so as to give full play to the advantages of active materials. According to children's different abilities, provide activity materials with different operation difficulties, which is convenient for teachers to give targeted guidance and help to children with different abilities, better teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and promote children to improve at the original level to varying degrees. For example, in the activity of "learning the number within 3", I put two materials, namely "sorting box" and "finding friends for the baby", among which "finding friends for the baby" has deepened some difficulties and is suitable for children who have mastered it; Children who are not fully mastered in teaching activities can continue to consolidate through the "sorting box" so that every child can develop at the original level.
Active materials should also be operable. Through the operation of materials, children can be stimulated to practice and use their brains, support the benign interaction between children and the activity environment, and guide children to practice and use their brains to think about objective things according to their hobbies, so that children will not feel bored during half an hour of regional activities. Taking a taxi in the "work area" is a good example. Children will constantly encounter setbacks in the process of spelling, and then through observation, thinking and repeated collage, until success. In this process, children's judgment intelligence has been fully developed, and various cars have fully stimulated children's interest in learning. Some children can assemble many cars at a time, and the joy after success is self-evident.
Five, put the activity materials to avoid high-grade, finished products.
In the selection and delivery of materials in the activity area, we should avoid competing with each other, pursue high-grade, realistic and finished products, and "adults look comfortable." In this way, it not only wastes financial resources, material resources and manpower, but also greatly reduces the educational value of the activity.
For example, many kindergartens not only buy dressing tables, washing machines, cookers and other equipment and clothes for dolls at high prices, but also teachers work overtime to make all kinds of fake foods, such as steamed buns, steamed buns and fruit bowls, to make dolls look decent. However, after careful observation of the children's activities, I found that the scenes of using my mother's old scarf as an apron, looking for things to decorate the room, and "buying food" and "cooking" by division of labor disappeared. The rest of the doll's family probably pretended to eat, chat and say hello. Moreover, the material function that is too vivid must be single and fixed. Therefore, the "role-playing area" that can be completely changed with children's interests and needs is now limited to the "doll's house". This not only limits the function of the area, but also limits children's activities and even their imagination and freedom. This may be the result that investors don't want, but it really happened.
In fact, relatively primitive and basic materials and semi-finished products are more likely to be multifunctional and have greater educational value, which is more conducive to children's activities, learning and development.
Therefore, no matter how abundant the funds and manpower are, we should consider the problem from the actual effect. High investment does not necessarily bring high returns.