What should a preschooler know about the world around him?
During preschool age, children actively explore the world around them. A child’s natural need to learn new things is extremely strong, and it is very important to give the baby the opportunity to fully realize it. In this article we will tell you in what ways preschoolers learn about the surrounding reality, what exactly a child should know and what is interesting to him, as well as what games will help develop knowledge about the world.
How do preschoolers learn about the world around them?
Preschool childhood is a period during which the baby develops his first ideas about the world around him, its patterns and relationships. Children apply the acquired knowledge in practice, using it in their games and when completing educational tasks. Love for nature, careful attitude to the result of human labor, understanding of relationships between people - the foundation for this is laid precisely in preschool age. In general, methods for generating knowledge about the world can be divided into three large groups:
- Visual methods (observation, watching cartoons, looking at paintings);
- Verbal methods (conversations, reading books);
- Practical methods (games, experiments, experiments).
To help your child learn as much as possible about the world (within the child’s interests and abilities), you need to use various methods and combine them with each other. Many experts believe that observing nature is the most important means of educating preschoolers. When faced with an unfamiliar object or phenomenon, the baby is sure to ask questions: “How did this appear here? What is this? What is it for?". The child’s activity is most fully manifested in experimental activities. In this case, adults do not provide ready-made information to the child, but form a problem situation that needs to be solved using their experience. Children love to experiment and take on the role of real scientists for a while.
Games for developing and consolidating knowledge about the world around us
- "Find out by taste." Ask your child to close his eyes and taste to determine what kind of product he is trying. The absence of visual information greatly enhances the taste experience.
- "What smells?". From available ingredients you can create a whole aroma set (for example, garlic, coffee, cinnamon, berries, cucumber, lemon, chocolate, and so on). Ask your baby to close his eyes and guess the object by smell. You can also invite your child to draw what he associates this or that scent with.
- “Whose sound?” An adult hides behind a screen and uses objects to make various sounds: rustling a bag, tearing paper, knocking with spoons, ringing a bell, pouring water, and so on. The baby must guess which object each sound corresponds to.
- “Guess by the description.” Riddle an animal, and the child should try to guess who it is, using leading questions (“Is it big or small?”, “Where does it live?”, “What does it eat?” and so on).
- "Magic bag" For this game you will need an opaque bag and small objects of various shapes and textures. Based on his tactile sensations, the baby should pull out the thing that you describe to him.
- “What first, what then?” The exercise is to determine the correct order of life stages of different creatures (eg butterfly, frog, bird, human).
In order for a preschool child to understand ways to navigate the world, learn to identify the essential properties of objects and phenomena, and identify cause-and-effect relationships, multiple repetitions of the material covered are necessary.
- “When does this happen?” Prepare plot or subject pictures with signs of the seasons (for example, falling leaves, green grass, frozen river, snowdrops, etc.). The child must correctly correlate the signs with the seasons.
- “Which tree is the leaf from?” This game can be played outside with real trees and leaves, or at home (I use cards with pictures). The task is to find a tree by its leaf.
- "Who, whose baby." Invite the baby to help mothers find their babies (you need to correctly connect the pictures with adult animals and their babies).
- "Who lives where". Prepare cards with images of animals and their homes (for example, a squirrel is a hollow, an ant is an anthill, a bird is a nest, a mole is a hole, and so on). The child must distribute the cards correctly and try to explain his choice.
- “It’s similar - it’s not similar.” An adult thinks of two animals, naming their similarities and differences (for example, large, with hooves, with a mane, one is striped and the other is brown - this is a zebra and a horse). By guessing, the baby will learn to identify significant features.
- “Who will benefit from this?” This game will help your child get an idea of different professions. The child’s task is to correlate a tool (or simply an attribute) with a certain profession (cook - saucepan, driver - steering wheel, astronaut - spacesuit, and so on).
- "My city". While walking with your baby, talk about the sights and interesting places in your city, take photos of them. Then, together with your child, draw a map of the city or area and ask him to guess where this or that attraction is located.
