Early childhood education stage is the preparation stage for children to study regularly and systematically in order to enter primary school. In the practice of preschool education, some kindergartens tend to attach importance to knowledge transmission and neglect ability training. Early childhood education should actively explore strategies to effectively develop children's thinking ability from methods and ways. Early childhood education should pay full attention to the main characteristics of children's thinking ability and fully stimulate their interest in learning and thirst for knowledge. Children aged 3 ~ 5 are in the germination and initial development period of logical thinking, which is an important stage in the initial formation of mathematical concepts. Mathematical thinking ability can not only help children understand the quantitative attributes of things, but also help children gain an understanding of the relationship between things from specific phenomena and things. This is a lifelong ability. Children's thinking is very concrete and intuitive. With the improvement of knowledge and the development of ability, thinking gradually changes from image thinking to abstract thinking. Because mathematics is logical, abstract and dialectical, mathematics education is very important for the development of children's thinking ability. In the activities of mathematics education, we must make full use of this point and put the focus of children's mathematics education on developing children's intelligence, especially on developing preliminary mathematical abstract logical thinking, so as to benefit children for life.
2 Effective ways to develop children's thinking ability
2. 1 Create a mathematical regional environment and develop children's thinking ability.
Practice is the basis of thinking. Objects in daily life show a certain number, size and shape. Therefore, from the day of birth, children will inevitably deal with mathematics and accumulate knowledge about "number, quantity and shape". Daily life is the inexhaustible source of our mathematics education. The influence of mathematics in daily life is spontaneous and accidental. Although there is a lot of information in daily life, children's experience is scattered, and the role of relying on it for mathematics education is limited. Establish an external environment for mathematics learning, so that children can operate, explore and experience. Mathematics regional environment is an environment created by teachers for children to learn mathematics. The influence of mathematics education on the regional environment of mathematics is purposeful and organized. Teachers will create an environment suitable for learning mathematics according to the development level of children in this class and the goal of mathematics education. Children's mathematical experience in the mathematical regional environment has two characteristics: purposefulness and systematicness. The geographical environment in which children's mathematics is located is more conducive to the formation of mathematical concepts and the development of mathematical thinking.
2.2 Provide sufficient time to explore and develop children's thinking ability.
"As long as there is enough time and opportunity, every child can reach a high level of learning"-American educational psychologist Bloom. In terms of learning speed, some children can understand only by the teacher's language explanation, and some children can only master it through repeated practice. Children in small classes, in particular, are not agile in thinking and unskilled in operating skills. Faced with new knowledge, they have to accept it slowly. It is unrealistic to urge all children to learn new knowledge in a short time. The lack of time left for children's independent inquiry will inevitably interrupt their thinking process and make independent inquiry a mere formality. Teachers should provide children with sufficient operation time, and should not only pay attention to the operation results but ignore the role of the operation process. When children learn elementary mathematics knowledge, they change from direct perception to representation, and then form elementary mathematics concepts. As long as we give children enough time to explore and let them acquire knowledge and skills in an independent and pleasant atmosphere, it is very beneficial to develop their thinking ability. Whenever I put new materials into the environment of mathematics area, I always explain and demonstrate the basic operation methods first, and then give children enough time to operate and explore. New mathematical knowledge gradually changes from unfamiliar to familiar, and new mathematical concepts gradually change from vague to clear, thus fully developing children's thinking ability.
2.3 stimulate children's interest in learning and develop their thinking ability.
In children's learning activities, it is very important to stimulate their interest in learning. When I teach children "less, more, more" and "as much", I pay great attention to stimulating children's interest in learning. I took out some interesting objects with different colors, which greatly stimulated the children's interest in learning. Let the children observe and compare carefully and know the similarities and differences of various objects. Let children understand "less, more, more" and "as much" in comparison, know geometric figures, distinguish the number of objects and develop their thinking ability. Children's exploration in mathematical activities has gone through the thinking process of "analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization, judgment and reasoning". Teachers' language plays a leading role in guiding children to "analyze and synthesize, abstract and generalize, judge and reason" in mathematics activities. Children generally like listening to stories. Teachers can use stories to stimulate children's interest in learning and curiosity. When I was studying the number "2" in a small class, I told a story about "Duckling learns numbers": Duckling asked his sister, "Sister, what words do we know today?" Sister Duck picked up a card with "2" written on it and said, "Teach you to recognize a number" 2 ". The duckling looks at the card and says, "Sister, I can recognize' 2'." Sister Duck said, "Go find a friend of' 2'! "The duckling walked and met Mother Goose. Aunt Goose asked, "Baby Duckling, where are you going?" "Aunt Goose, I'm going to find a friend of' 2'." "I am a friend of' 2'. Please count my legs. Baby Duckling counted carefully: 1 2, Aunt Goose, you have' 2' legs, yes, you are a friend of' 2'. At this point in the story, I began to ask, "Son, please think about it. Who is the friend of' 2'? " Children naturally answer: chickens, sparrows, swallows, penguins and ducklings all have legs of "2" and are all good friends of "2". Teachers should be good at persuasion, improve the situation, stimulate children's interest in learning, guide children to explore ideas and develop their thinking ability.
2.4 Be good at using intuitive materials to develop children's thinking ability.
Children's age and thinking characteristics determine that they can't learn without intuitive and vivid teaching AIDS and learning materials. Montessori, a famous early childhood educator, said: "What makes children feel that mathematics is abstract is not the problem of mathematics itself, but the wrong method provided by adults." Intuitive materials are the material carrier of teachers' mathematics teaching activities. In pre-school mathematics teaching activities, teachers can start with thinking in images, present abstract and complex mathematics to children through intuitive and vivid materials, and turn mathematics teaching activities into "very intuitive, simple, operable and perceptible" operation games. Let children actively discover and explore problems in hands-on operation, build knowledge and develop ability. For example, in the math teaching activities in large classes, I let my children sit in front of a pile of building blocks and count how many there are. Because the child is in front of a pile of building blocks, he can only see the first few blocks, the top few blocks, and can't see the two blocks pressed below. If children want to count the number of this pile of building blocks correctly, they must find the rule of building blocks stacking through operation, observation and thinking. From the six visible building blocks, imagine and infer the number of invisible building blocks pressed below. In the process of counting the number of building blocks, children should carry out a series of thinking activities such as imagination, judgment and reasoning. In this process, children's mathematical thinking ability can be developed. Modern children's mathematics teaching activities attach importance to the role of "operation" in "counting" teaching. Teachers should guide children to understand or learn simple counting skills by operating learning tools and other direct materials. In children's mathematics teaching activities, in addition to using various teaching AIDS, special attention should be paid to guiding children how to carry out practical operations. For example, when I was studying Divided into 7, I prepared "red, yellow and blue small building blocks", matchsticks, small buttons and other materials. Give them seven copies of operation materials each. Let them divide the homework materials into two parts and see how many ways there are. I asked each child to tell me how he divided it. In the process of children telling "how to divide themselves", I praised the children's answers in time. Every time a child says division, he will get a small red flower. All the children are interested in answering questions. For the children who can't tell, I participate in it and cooperate with them in practical operation. Children's logical thinking ability is relatively poor, and they can only think well when playing with objects. Teachers should guide children to observe the quantity of homework materials and cultivate and develop their thinking ability. Teachers should carefully choose intuitive materials, which are safe, healthy, simple and effective, conform to children's psychological and physiological characteristics, and help children explore and construct mathematical knowledge. For example, when I was teaching "corresponding exercises", I provided many yogurt bottles and caps of different sizes and shapes to my children. The bottle and cap of the same bottle of yogurt have the same pattern. When unscrewing or assembling, children look for the bottle cap or bottle body with the same pattern according to the pattern on the bottle body or bottle cap. Yogurt bottles and caps are safe, healthy, simple and effective. Children's familiarity with yogurt bottles conforms to their psychological and physiological characteristics and can help children explore and construct mathematical knowledge about "pairing". Children have a strong interest in learning and make rapid progress. Improve children's observation ability, hands-on ability and thinking ability in the process of repeated unscrewing and assembly.
In a word, mathematics helps people to reveal the essential and identical characteristics of things through concrete and superficial phenomena. Learning to solve problems by mathematical methods can help children learn logical thinking methods. Mathematics is an important way to develop children's thinking ability. First of all, we should understand the main characteristics of children's thinking ability at the age of 3 ~ 5, and then develop children's thinking ability through effective ways such as "creating mathematical regional environment, providing sufficient exploration time, stimulating children's interest in learning, and being good at using intuitive materials". In preschool mathematics teaching activities, we should pay attention to the integration of teaching content and children's life, actively create various favorable teaching situations, and pay attention to the process of children's observation, discovery, analysis and generalization in the process of knowledge construction, so as to cultivate and develop children's thinking ability in the process of mathematics teaching. Mathematical knowledge is limited, and thinking ability is infinite. Let mathematics give wings to children's thinking ability and soar in the future sky.