Play as the main activity of preschool children

Play as the main activity of preschool children

 For children, one of the main activities is play. The child lives by playing. Play is an independent activity in which children actively interact with peers. Children playing are united by a common goal, common experiences that contribute to the formation of personality. In the pedagogical process, play is used as the most effective means for solving many educational problems. The game takes place in the process of development and correction of cognitive abilities, personal qualities, spatial and temporal orientations. Play is not a way of expelling excess energy, but a form of developing the free manifestation of personality. Play is a type of activity that controls development, in which not only the child’s personal qualities are formed, but also his attitude towards activities and people. [1, p.22]

We can also consider play as the main form of self-affirmation and life of preschoolers. In her works, A.P. Usova emphasized the most important function of the game, pointing out that games provide an opportunity to organize not only a certain moment in life, but also to cultivate independence, activate the passive, and provide the opportunity to act as a leader. In the game, a child gains certain experience, the opportunity to apply it in his activities, gains some knowledge and skills, can choose the theme of the game and develop a plot on this topic, can choose partners who are impressed by his type and temperament, those with whom he enjoys communicate.

I have repeatedly observed how a child sincerely perceives the game, how he lives in the game, how he cries and does not leave the game. However, in order for a child to be able to play enthusiastically and independently, he needs to be helped to learn how to play, learn to imagine and fantasize, manipulate with toys and substitute objects. As A.V. Zaporozhets noted, a child of primary preschool age needs to be helped to learn some ways of playing reality, learn to use toys, acquire the ability to act out well-known plots, learn to obey and follow the rules of the chosen game. If a child has a need, motivated by an adult, to carry out play actions and all conditions have been created for this (toys, materials, substitute objects with which children can realize this need), then the play process becomes meaningful and interesting.

While playing, the child’s emotional state improves, which is very important during the period of adaptation of children of primary school age to the conditions of kindergarten; he receives great pleasure from the game, which balances his psyche and improves his physical health.

When working with children of primary preschool age, teachers face certain tasks:

a) Relieve emotional and muscle tension, teach children to consciously perceive their own emotions - feelings and experiences - as well as understand the emotional state of others;

b) Develop skills of constructive communication with adults and peers, teach methods of successful social interaction;

c) Correct personal characteristics by stimulating the mental, emotional and psychomotor development of the child in their unity.

These tasks are solved through the main type of activity, through the play activity of the preschooler. Children need to be involved in games, to promote the development of game plots that reflect the surrounding reality and the life of the child. The games show that the baby knows what is dear to him, and develops the ability to fantasize and speak. Children learn, in accordance with the chosen role, to come up with a simple plot, build simple buildings, and independently select toys based on the theme of the game. [3, p.36]

When working with three-year-old children, you must:

- animate a game character who, during the lesson, will act as the child’s partner when completing the task and in the subsequent game;

‒ use various plots to encourage children to more complex ways of constructing a game, the transition from conditional objective actions to role-playing behavior;

- carry out the “transformation” of some objects into others, use substitute objects, etc.

In the daily routine of a preschooler, there is not much time for independent play activities, but children play constantly, play out all types of activities carried out during the day, both in kindergarten and at home. At first, already known plots are used with the kids, for example, “pretend” to bring tea, tasting the “tea” and offering to “cool it” as if it were hot, then it turns out that the tea is not sweet - you need to put sugar in the cup... this is how the plot begins with already familiar ones actions that the child repeatedly repeats with pleasure. They play out stories with pleasure with a doll - bathing, dressing, giving tea, the doll is sick, subsequently several stories are combined together, the course of the game develops, in which the teacher advises, guides and prompts. Initially, the teacher takes an active part in all games, gradually transfers the leading role to the children, promotes independence, the ability to independently build a plot and develop it.

The teacher has an active influence on the choice of the theme of the game in various ways, this could be the selection of certain toys - dishes arranged together according to purpose (dining room, tea), according to color scheme, size, a doll with clothes that are easy to put on and take off can create a desire to play “family” "; the presence of various types of building materials and animal figures can encourage the development of the plot of building pens for animals, and if you add various cars, it will be possible to build garages, etc. Including a child in a game organized by an adult is much easier than teaching him to choose a certain one on his own theme and develop the plot. The path to developing children's play should not lie through edification and suppression of children's initiative; play cannot be replaced by “action according to instructions.”

The most effective areas of work with children of primary preschool age are those that involve the active, jointly played activity of the child himself. Such activity allows him to externalize the objects of self-expression. And a child’s self-expression is a way of self-knowledge and self-development. While playing, the child’s emotional state improves, he receives great pleasure from the game, which balances his psyche and improves his physical health.

Fradkina F.I. said: “The game must be taught especially in very early childhood - this should be stated quite boldly. But you can teach in different ways. You cannot build a standard - a model that will result from the development of the plot, and impose it on a child. First of all, it won’t work, and if it does, it won’t be a game - the game will turn into an activity.” Preschool children need time to “enter” the game, so there is no need to rush them and encourage them to new actions if they have not mastered the previous ones, otherwise this leads to fatigue and an explosive situation. During the game, it is necessary to strive to ensure that the child is able to feel joy from his activity, and, importantly, from the result of his activity. A.P. Usova wrote: “Every game, if the child is capable of it, puts him in a position where his mind works vividly and energetically, his actions are organized...”

In order for the baby to grow up not only healthy, but also smart and capable, it is recommended to play with the baby literally from the moment of birth, attracting his attention to surrounding objects, teaching him to perform basic play actions “where are the ears, hands, eyes, nose, cheeks?”, by showing actions with objects, eventually suggesting the plots of games, then answering children's questions, assistance in drawing, building structures from cubes.

Ushinsky K.D. wrote “A game for a child is not a game, but a reality, it is a universal and inalienable right of a child.” For younger preschoolers, independent and organized observation of the work and everyday activities of older children and adults plays a huge role in the development of children's games. Usually, the observation is structured in such a way that the focus of attention is on the person or object being observed: the driver brought food to the kindergarten, the janitor cleans the area, the nurse examines the children, etc. Such observations help to move from playing with an object to a game in which the child plays a specific role. Children need to be shown how they can use the acquired knowledge in the game, translating it into the language of the game - highlight and distribute roles, clarify their actions according to the chosen role, think about what toys and objects are needed for this game, a sample of drawing up the plot of the game is offered.

The direct emotionality of an adult, a trusting attitude towards children, and an attitude towards toys as partners helps to sincerely captivate the child, helps to immerse children in the atmosphere of the game, and focus on the process of the game itself. Children must feel the sincere attitude of an adult towards them, then it will be possible not only to properly guide the game, but also to find a way to the child’s heart. In no case should you allow such a formulation as “Look carefully at how I play now, and then you yourself will play the same way...”. If one of the children remains completely indifferent to what is happening, he needs to be involved, offered to provide all possible assistance, “rock the doll, bring her tea, check if it’s hot? Or bring the missing bricks to build a garage or castle.

Even very young children notice the attitude of adults towards both toys and children, and then copy them, copy gestures, words, actions. Imitation becomes a playful action and gradually develops into the game itself. The plot borrowed from the teacher becomes its own, can expand and grow from the plot - the model, other toys and actions from personal relationships and experience can be added. The wider the circle of communication with older children and adults, the more information the child receives from the outside world, from the life around him, the richer the child’s games, the wider his active vocabulary. During the game itself, you can clarify and expand the acquired knowledge, complicate the content of the game, develop imagination, thinking, and enrich your vocabulary.

In younger preschoolers, specifically imaginative thinking predominates; in independent play, the child takes on a certain image, he imagines himself as a car, a kitten, a puppy, an airplane - most of all he is interested in the external side of play actions, the connection with the intention of the game is not always traced. A toy is the organizing beginning of a game; small children play with a toy; a toy can also be a partner; active action with a toy develops the imagination. When a child sees a toy, a desire arises to manipulate it, and both an idea and a plot arise. A child sees a car - he needs to go somewhere, he sees cubes - he needs to load the cubes onto the car and take them away, he sees a cup - he needs to make tea, he sees a doll - he needs to give the doll some tea. In the process of a child’s play activity with toys and objects, imagination and fantasies are manifested, and often what is desired is presented as reality. Children's fantasies can arise in certain situations. Kids enjoy playing with substitute objects. (Once the children were asked to put away the cubes, one child did not take the cubes out of his pockets, and when asked: “Why didn’t he put them away?” he answered, “There are no cubes, these are a phone and a smartphone”). Children can transfer actions from one object to another.

The correct selection of age-appropriate toys, as well as the proper arrangement of gaming material in the group room, activates play activity and promotes the development of independent play. Children of primary preschool age should have bright, medium and large household toys (dolls, bunnies, bears which are convenient to dress and undress, feed and put to bed, treat and push in a stroller, there should be playful household items: furniture, stove, irons, tablets, phones, hygiene items), etc. They should be located at the children’s eye level throughout the group room, zonally, so that children can play both individually and in small subgroups.

Kids gradually move from individual games to side-by-side games. All children have different perceptions, attention, memory, and thinking. At first, the teacher conducts simple group games “we’re going on a bus for a walk in the forest” - in the first game the teacher takes the role of the driver, the children are passengers, in subsequent games the roles can be distributed “in turns”, the kids should feel a sense of pleasure from the game and communication with other children. The plot of the game is taken from everyday life and should be familiar to young children. Children are attracted by kindness, active participation, and the desire to accept or invite the child into their play. In his work, the teacher relies on more active children, involving passive, “closed” ones in the game, paying more attention to those who adapt less well in the children's team.

The teacher must clearly remember that the level of development of the child’s play activity corresponds to the level of development of mental activity; if the child experiences difficulties in play communication, difficulties in verbal communication, closer attention to him is necessary. The main task of the teacher at this stage is to encourage children who have reached the level of “playing side by side” to play together, form and establish friendly contacts, achieve agreement in game situations, obey certain rules of the game, expand their active vocabulary, and enrich younger schoolchildren with knowledge .

Ultimately, there comes a time when systematized and generalized knowledge becomes necessary for the child’s full mental development.

The formation of play activity in young children is carried out as follows: a) teaching children to reproduce reality in a playful way, to reproduce familiar actions; b) proposal of the plot of the game, management of the game, which arises at the suggestion of the teacher and on the initiative of the children. Any coercion is categorically excluded from all techniques. The game should promote positive emotional experiences, bring joy and satisfaction; in the game the child asserts himself and develops.

Literature:

1. A. V. Zaporozhets “Game and development of the child.”
2. A. P. Usova “The role of play in the development of a child”
3. G. M. Lyamina “Education of Young Children”
4. N. S. Novoselova “Preschooler’s Game”
5. T. N. Doronova “Girls and boys 3–4 years old in the family and kindergarten”
6. T. B. Mazepina “Development of a child’s skills in games, trainings, tests”

Play as the main type of activity for a preschooler

It is at this stage that it is possible to develop play creativity under the influence of education and training, since its development depends on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, on the cultivation of interests. The teacher can replace the child’s individual characteristics that manifest themselves in the game. At the same time, it is observed that the same child exhibits different levels of play creativity depending on the content of the game, the role performed, and relationships with friends

1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAIN TYPES OF GAMES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

Children's games are very diverse. They differ in content and organization, rules, the nature of children’s manifestations, the impact on the child, the types of objects used, origin, etc. All this makes it difficult to classify games, but for proper management of games, grouping them is necessary. Each type of game performs its own function in the development of a child. In preschool age, there are three classes of games:

- games that arise on the child’s initiative - amateur games;

- games that arise on the initiative of an adult who introduces them for educational and educational purposes;

- games that come from the historically established traditions of the ethnic group - folk games that can arise both on the initiative of an adult and older children.

Each of the listed classes of games, in turn, is represented by types and subtypes. So, the first class includes:

1.Creative role-playing games.

The concept of “creative play” covers role-playing games, dramatization games, and construction games. The content of creative games is invented by the children themselves. Freedom, independence, self-organization and creativity of children in this group are especially fully manifested. Various life experiences are not copied, they are processed by children, some of them are replaced by others, etc.

- role-playing game

- This is the main type of game for a preschool child. It has the main features of the game: emotional richness and enthusiasm of children, independence, activity, creativity. The first story games proceed as role-less games or games with a hidden role. Children's actions acquire a plot character and are combined into a chain that has vital meaning. Actions with objects and toys are carried out by each of the playing children independently. Joint games are possible with the participation of an adult. [14, p.14]

- dramatization games

. They have the main features of creative games: the presence of a plan, a combination of role-playing and real actions and relationships, and other elements of an imaginary situation. Games are built on the basis of a literary work: the plot of the game, roles, actions of the characters and their speech are determined by the text of the work. Dramatization play has a great influence on a child’s speech. The child assimilates the riches of his native language, its means of expression, uses various intonations that correspond to the character of the characters and actions, and tries to speak clearly so that everyone understands him. The beginning of work on a dramatization game consists of selecting a work of art. It is important that it interests children and evokes strong feelings and experiences. The teacher takes part in the conspiracy and preparation of the game. Based on the content of the work, the plot of the game is drawn up with the children, roles are assigned, and speech material is selected. The teacher uses questions, advice, re-reading the work, conversations with children about the game and thus helps to achieve the greatest expressiveness in the depiction of the characters.

Features of play activities of children 3-4 years old

In early preschool age (3-4 years), the defining and dominant activity of the child is play. Gaming activity, as a guarantor of motor development, is an independent value for a person. The most significant acquisitions of children's bodies are associated with the development of motor function through play activities. The psychological characteristics of the game change: its content creates the basis for communication and joint actions of children. They become interested not only in the features and purpose of objects, the functions of the people around them, but also in their interactions and relationships.

S.L. Novoselova notes that during this period significant changes occur in the cognitive sphere of children. On the one hand, their knowledge becomes clearer: they quickly navigate the sensory characteristics of the objective world, and quite easily combine objects not only by appearance, but also by purpose. On the other hand, at this age children are also attracted to unrealistic “mysterious” phenomena. Interest in fairy tales and poems is growing [10, p. 38].

Children begin to more subtly perceive people's moods and relationships and imitate their intonation. When familiarizing themselves with works of art, they distinguish between rhythm, rhyme, prose and poetic texts. They recognize known musical works (songs, plays), name them, distinguish them by mood (cheerful, calm, sad).

Kids become more inquisitive, more active in searching for answers to questions of interest, and often express elementary judgments about surrounding things and phenomena. All this enriches their speech, develops visual-figurative thinking and imagination.

The behavior of the children is already of a deliberate nature: they begin to set a goal and act in accordance with it in everyday life, in play, in forms of activity that are new to them: drawing, designing, modeling. However, due to the instability of attention, children can be easily distracted.

The child is no longer satisfied with the constant care of adults (especially in the family). If earlier he turned to elders for support, assessment and help, now his communication is undergoing qualitative changes - it turns into a spiritual need. An adult appears before a child as a source of knowledge about the environment [10, p. 38].

The play of younger preschoolers is of an object-manipulative and design nature. It would be more correct to call such a game not a plot-role-playing game, but a plot-display one. In such a game, the actions of adults are reproduced, which the child observes. Parents and close friends serve as role models. The plots of such games are not particularly diverse, they consist in repeated repetition of the same actions, game actions completely imitate real ones [3, p. 112].

The plot of the game is the sphere of reality that is reproduced by children. The plot is a child’s reflection of certain actions, events, relationships from the life and activities of those around him. At the same time, the child’s playful actions (turning the steering wheel of the car, preparing dinner, etc.) are one of the main means of realizing the plot. In early preschool age, everyday themes predominate (family games, kindergarten). A characteristic feature of the games of children of primary preschool age is limited content and poor plot. The content of children's games is directly related to knowledge about the surrounding reality. You can often observe how younger children quickly lose interest in the plot of the game and move on to something else, because... the game does not captivate them [5, p. 42].

Children of primary preschool age have different experiences of play interaction, inclusion in play relationships with children and adults, and the ability to use substitute objects in play. Playing with such objects can occur spontaneously: on the street, at home, in an educational institution. By substitute items we mean any thing (object) that does not have a gaming purpose, which is used in gaming activities and acts as various gaming objects depending on the gaming situation. According to D.B. Elkonin, “the replacement of one object with another first arises when it is necessary to supplement the usual situation of action with a missing object that is absent at the moment” [26, p. 190-191]. At the same time, according to the researcher, the substitute object is subject to minimum requirements for similarity to the depicted object.

Playing with substitute objects is a special and necessary skill for a child, which:

— develops mental activity and cognitive interests;

— develops independence and initiative;

- promotes the development of thinking, imagination, memory, attention;

— provides communication with peers and the ability to navigate in social situations. Thus, the skill of using substitute objects in a game includes most of the functions formed in the process of gaming activity.

Actions with objects are carried out in a certain sequence, although this sequence is often disrupted. Children's actions are monotonous and often repeated. Roles are not designated. In form it is a side-by-side game or a single player game. Children willingly play with adults. Independent play is short-lived. As a rule, the stimulus for the emergence of a game is a toy or a substitute object that was previously used in the game. The same game can be repeated many times. Toys are not selected in advance, but children often use the same ones – their favorite ones [5, p. 41-42].

Thus, substitute play activity not only creates the basis for normal growth and development, stimulates the child’s mental development, but also helps enrich the child’s life experience, his imagination, memory, and the establishment of logical connections. Therefore, parents of preschoolers, together with preschool organizations, need to find the right balance in the daily routine of preschoolers, in which there should be a place for varied play, because the child’s moral and physical health and his formation as a self-sufficient personality depend on this [14, p. 38].

The play activity of younger preschoolers is a form of communication. The main reasons for communicating with each other arise in the process of play, activities, and performing household duties, which children must master in preschool age. At the border between early and preschool childhood, the first types of children's games appear. Children of primary preschool age first come into contact with peers in various games and independent activities, in which the child imagines himself to be anyone and acts in accordance with this image. A prerequisite for the development of such a game is a vivid, memorable impression that evokes a strong emotional response. The child gets used to the image, feels it with both soul and body. He wants to attract the attention of adults and receive their assessment of his activities.

A child at this age is subject to more complex requirements for performing actions during routine processes, caring for toys, and for the work of adults. In addition, more attention must be paid to developing in children the skills to follow the rules of polite communication and organized behavior in kindergarten, at home, and on the street.

Children are very interested in games and exercises that reinforce the rules of etiquette in communicating with surrounding adults and children. They use puppet theaters, educational toys, humorous pictures, illustrations, conversations on moral topics: “Our mothers”, “Lessons of kindness”, “Rules of a friendly game”, “Our good deeds”, “Tanya the doll is going to visit”, “ How to behave during a conversation with adults”, “What can you do to please your mother”, “Grandma is visiting us”, “Don’t forget about your comrades”.

It should be noted that the fourth year of life is the end of an early age; a child has enormous scope for imagination. This year is also important for the child’s future relationship with himself.

With proper organization of play activities, by the age of five, children should be able to:

1. Interact with fellow players, taking on the role and acting on behalf of the game hero.

2. Be able to combine several game actions into a single plot line, and also be able to reflect a projection on people’s relationships in game actions with objects.

3. Act within the framework of game rules during didactic games.

4. During a theatrical performance, carefully monitor the development of the plot and respond emotionally to the actions of the characters.

5. Be able to act out excerpts from fairy tales and stories familiar to the child. Be able to imitate the movements of the characters, their intonation and facial movements.

6. Be able to have a conversation about the theater and famous fairy tales, including the behavior of other people in the auditorium or peers [13, p. 28].

Based on pedagogical observations of I.A. Vinogradova draws the following conclusions:

— the need for play in children of primary preschool age is low and is determined by the child’s mood, the place of play during the day, and the characteristics of interaction with peers;

- most children experience frequent changes in emotional states during play;

— the plots of the games are undeveloped, monotonous, or absent altogether;

- speech activity during the game is low, children accompany game actions with individual speech statements or sounds;

- most children independently use substitute objects in games; they use imaginary objects mainly with the help of an adult [5, p. 26].

Thus, play, being one of the main means of educating a child, performs a variety of functions; acts in the form of developmental activities, a zone of socialization, cooperation, community, co-creation with adults and peers. The game must correspond to the age-related characteristics of the child’s mental and physical development, and be a means of developing positive personality traits. The age of preschool children - 3-4 years - is a crucial period in the formation of play activity, a fundamentally new stage in its development in connection with the transition from plot-based play to plot-role play.

1.3. Criteria for assessing the level of development of role-playing games in children 3-4 years old

In pedagogy, it is customary to distinguish the following groups of criteria for evaluating gaming activities, depending on the conditions and results. In turn, when identifying criteria based on the results of play activities, an assessment is made of the levels of children’s education in play activities, the personal and emotional-volitional development of the child, the physical and mental health of children and intellectual activity in the process of play activities.

Let's present these criteria in the form of a table.

Table 1. Criteria for evaluating gaming activities

The task of determining the level of development of play activity for each age group of children is assigned to the teacher and is implemented based on ongoing observations of the process of children’s independent play activity, taking into account the children’s reaction to the initiative play actions of an adult. When determining the level of development of play activity, it seems impossible to define strict criteria, but the teacher has the right to be guided by a system of indicators that make it possible to classify a child’s play as a high, medium or low level according to the age capabilities of the children.

It seems advisable to carry out diagnostics in groups of primary preschool age three times a year, as well as in middle and senior groups. The initial diagnosis is carried out in September in order to select appropriate interaction techniques that would contribute to the children’s advancement in the game. In the middle of the school year (approximately January-February), the next determination of the level of development of the child’s play activity is carried out, thanks to which the teacher has the opportunity to make adjustments to his formative influences, to determine which of the children needs it to a greater extent. At the end of the year (approximately May-June), the teacher must conduct a final diagnosis of the level of development of gaming activity. This final diagnosis can become a starting point in determining the teacher’s approximate future tactics towards a child in the next age group. Approximate indicators for determining the levels of development of story play are traditionally determined according to Elkonin (we will take the younger preschool age) (Table 3). In our course work, we will take the criteria for the levels of analysis of the plot-role-playing game of preschoolers according to N.N. Serova (Table 2).

Table 2. Criteria for levels of analysis of role-playing games for preschoolers (N. N. Serova)

Table 3. Levels of development of role-playing games (according to D.B. Elkonin)

In table Table 4 shows the indicators of game development levels developed in accordance with the previously given criteria for a group of children of primary preschool age at the beginning and middle of the year, and in Table. 5 – at the end of the year.

Table 4. Indicators of game development levels for the younger group of kindergarten at the beginning and middle of the year

Table 5. Indicators of game development levels for the younger group of kindergarten at the end of the year

The leading activity in the preschool educational institution is the game.

Game in kindergarten

The leading activity of children from 3 to 7 years old is play.
It is during this period that one takes on the role. Game is the most effective method of cognitive activity. The game creates a positive emotional background against which all mental activity occurs and develops most actively (memory, attention, thinking, imagination). The teacher must always remember that in children involuntary attention predominates. They are only able to focus on what they like, and not on what the teacher “needs”. Physiologist Sechenov said: “The child is always right, only an adult whose program is not interesting to the child can be wrong.” But play is almost always interesting to a child; it is a form of social life for a child. Children unite in games at will, act independently, realize their plans and explore the world. L.S. Vygotsky and D.B. Elkonin considered play as the most important and most effective form of child socialization. Independent play activities contribute to the physical and mental development of each child, the development of moral, volitional qualities, and creative abilities. Children should be able to independently organize a variety of games, negotiate, and follow the terms of the game and rules. The teacher should teach them this. The teacher’s task: to create a subject-based gaming environment for organizing all types of games in the classroom and in independent activities. Speaking about the periodization of games, we can highlight: 1. Object game, in which the child reproduces actions with objects, imitating adults (1-3 years) 2. Plot-role-playing game (4-5 years) 3. Game with rules (5-7 years ) 4. Theatrical game 5. Outdoor game 6. Didactic game (the main form of organized education in preschool age) The importance of the game for the mental development of the child is great, since the development occurs: 1. Arbitrariness of behavior and mental processes 2. Motivational needs of the sphere (orientation in the sphere of human relations) 3. The ideal plane of consciousness (the transition from thinking in actions to thinking in terms of ideas, to mental action itself) 4. Overcoming cognitive egocentrism (analysis of one’s actions, actions, motives) 5. Development of feelings 6. Arises within the game other activities These are photographs of my students in the junior and middle groups. Thank you for stopping by to visit!

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