How to create a kindergarten environment
Reggio preschool education researchers who are popular all over the world once put forward that the environment should be regarded as a "container that can support society, exploration and learning". From this concept, we can easily see that it has raised the creation and layout of the environment to an equal position with daily teaching activities and has become an important factor in curriculum design and implementation. At the same time, the environmental layout also promotes the socialization development of children, and makes them develop in the interaction with the environment. Thus, as an important educational resource, kindergarten environment plays a very important role in kindergarten education activities. I. Proposition of Problems Modern educational theory holds that heredity, environment and education are the basic factors that determine people's physical and mental development. Among them, heredity is the possible condition of people's physical and mental development, education is the driving force of people's physical and mental development, and environmental factors promote people's physical and mental development. In the educational activities of kindergartens, environment, as a "hidden course", has attracted more and more attention in developing children's personality, and the creation of environment has gradually become a hot spot in kindergarten work. In the newly issued Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education, it is also clearly stated: "The environment is an important educational resource, and the development of children should be effectively promoted through the creation and utilization of the environment." So, what is the kindergarten environment? Mr. Chen Heqin, a pioneer of preschool education in China, once put forward that the kindergarten environment is "all substances that children can touch and stimulate". Preschool education researchers from the northern Italian town of Reggio Emilia put forward requirements for the creation and layout of the environment. They think that the environment is a "container that can support society, explore and learn". It is precisely because the environment is where children live and touch every day that their physical and mental development, socialization development and personality development are all affected by it. Educators in Reggio believe: "Space has educational connotation, that is, it contains educational information and stimulates interactive experience and constructive things." The success of education depends on whether all elements in the environment have educational elements, whether they are beneficial to children's knowledge construction in the process of "doing" and so on. Therefore, the environment is by no means an ornament, nor is it just a pile of hardware equipment, but education is interdependent, inclusive and influential, and they are an inseparable whole. Therefore, the kindergarten environment plays an important role in the daily educational activities of kindergartens. As a kindergarten closely related to children's growth, it affects all the conditions of children's physical and mental development, that is, the educational environment of kindergarten. These conditions mainly include two kinds of materialization and ideology, that is, the material environment and spiritual environment of kindergarten. In the creation of kindergarten's own environment, we should constantly pursue the educational orientation of combining material environment with spiritual environment, that is, "the design of environment tends to combine all things related to education and develop." Second, the orientation of environment creation in kindergarten education (1), environment is an element of curriculum design and implementation. The essence of preschool education curriculum in China is: "the beneficial experience gained by learners under the conscious guidance of educators and interacting with educational situations and all educational activities of sound physical and mental development". We can easily see that it emphasizes three elements of education: learners, educational environment and educational results. (2) The environment is one of the best "records". If the kindergarten environment is full of vitality, the children's lives will also be full of vitality. Because "the environment is valuable for children's behavior and development, not only because it is a factor that affects children's development, but also because children have acquired the way and ability to cope with environmental changes through their own activities in the environment, and have also influenced and even transformed the environment." Children develop in the interaction with the environment. (3) The environment is the "third teacher". First of all, the environment should have the function of education. Secondly, the environment is relevant. It can combine various factors that cause children to experience each other and build new knowledge. Thirdly, the environment is flexible. It should constantly change according to the needs of young children, that is, let young children "talk" with the environment as mentioned above. (IV) Environment is the key factor of children's social development. Child psychology shows that preschool children are at the stage of egocentrism, which is the beginning of socialization. It is urgent to learn to understand others, know themselves, grasp their position in the group and get rid of egocentrism. Third, the principle of environmental creation (1) The principle of cultural refraction The school environment should present local cultural customs. The use of materials and utensils and the decoration presented on the wall can reflect the local customs and local characteristics of the kindergarten. For example, kindergarten teachers in large classes took advantage of our hometown-Jiashan, which has a unique charm of water town, and carried out the theme education activity "Beautiful Jiashan, I love you". Everything with Jiashan cultural characteristics in the kindergarten comes from the collection of children and their families. Bazhen cake, Zhuangyuan cake, smoked edamame, Fen lake crab, Dayun fresh cut flowers and Xitang yellow wine, which children and parents bring from home, create a unique culture. (2) Age and development principles For children of different ages, the specific requirements for creating an environment are different, and they should try their best to meet the age characteristics and development needs of children. For example, there are relatively many unstructured toys placed in small classes; There is also room to play the doll's house. In older children's classes, more equipment for exploration and experiment is placed. (3) Principles of Time and Space Kindergartens should provide children with a quiet and unhurried pace of activities, a safe, self-respecting and problem-solving environment. As Maragucci said, "We must respect the mature time, the development space, the time to use tools and the time to understand tools, and the time for children to develop in an all-round or slow, rich or bright way ... These times are cultural wisdom and ... (4) The principle of respecting users The creation of the environment should reveal the attitude of respecting the interests, needs and abilities of users-children, teachers and parents. As educators, we should constantly ask ourselves: What kind of environment do children need when creating the environment? Is this environment convenient for children's exploration activities? In what environment can we teachers listen to children, help children and record children more effectively? What do parents want from the environment? Wait a minute. (V) Principles of evaluation and renewal The environment of kindergartens is not fixed, but needs to be evaluated and revised regularly. We should constantly update the environment layout according to different seasonal characteristics and the progress of kindergarten curriculum, so that the environment can play its greatest role. On the concrete creation of kindergarten environment (I) The creation of physical environment The ecologist Barker pointed out on the basis of a large number of empirical studies that people always adapt to the environment by adjusting their own behavior, and the environment provides clues for people's behavior, but we should also point out that people can not only adapt to the environment, but also change the environment and create an environment conducive to their own development, and a good environment will have a positive impact on people, thus forming a continuous improvement between people and the environment. The significance of physical environment construction is not only because it is a condition that affects children's development, but also because of the interactive effect produced by children's active participation in the process of environmental construction. 1. Ways and methods for children to participate in the construction of the physical environment: Children are the masters of the environment, and they should be allowed to design the physical environment for creating kindergartens according to their own wishes and ideas, which is also more educational for children. For example, the teaching activity of "My Home" comes from a child in a large class talking to his peers about his newly-built villa. Children are watching the photos he brought and visiting his home on weekends, which will arouse the interest of other children. If teachers can capture this information in time from the conversation with children, it is a good educational activity about "My Home". Another example is that the children in the big class are ready to create the theme environment of "Green Home" under the inspiration of the teacher. Under the children's heated discussion, it was decided to complete it by the way of division of labor and cooperation through the formation of painting and clipping, and the content of the theme was also determined by the children themselves. Speaking of how to protect our environment, everyone was very excited and began to discuss what garbage is and how to dispose of it in order to protect our home ..................... Later, some children suggested that all the children in the kindergarten should know how to protect our home, so there were the following two first mate's propaganda newspapers. When the whole theme was created, the children were very excited. They were not only deeply attracted by this unique artistic beauty, but also experienced the joy of cooperation. More importantly, they knew more about how to protect our homeland and loved our environment more. Another example is that the children in the middle class show rich imagination when they participate in designing the environment of the natural corner. They say that white radish is like a pig, thin curved eggplant is like a small snake, red apple is like a little doll's face, and the lines on carrots are like wrinkles on an old man's face ... According to children's imagination, the teacher has artistically processed these vegetables and fruits. Lovely vegetables, small animals and fruit babies made the children feel intimate and soon became friends with them. Providing materials and works and participating in arranging materials and works provided by children is an important way for them to participate in the construction of material environment, and it is also a very important and effective educational process. In each of our classrooms, there is a "treasure chest", which collects all kinds of bottles, boxes, cans, small calendars, old wrapping paper, plastic foam boards, straws and other waste materials, as well as crab shells, eggshells, watermelon shells, happy fruit shells and other natural materials. Under the guidance of the teacher, the children made tall buildings and cars out of toothpaste boxes, decorated cans into various small animals, turned eggshells into many cute little dolls, and collaged beautiful patterns with fruit shells. Children are really happy to decorate our classroom with these works, and they are even more interested in collecting and looking for all kinds of waste materials. In this process of active input and participation, children's imagination, creativity and hands-on ability have been cultivated. In the process of children's participation in the arrangement, they should give full play to their main role. For example, the themes of "Beautiful Flowers" and "I Love Nature" created by the children in the big class, and "Kite" and "Dinosaur" created by the children in the middle class are all skillfully combined by the teachers through organizing children's discussions, according to the children's thoughts and opinions, and then together with them. This form of combining children's works to decorate the environment also makes every child feel the joy of success and the pleasure of cooperation. Through hands-on, brain-on, and personal participation in the educational process of environmental layout, children have gained new knowledge and experience, and their abilities have also been cultivated. And children also have a special affection and intimacy for their own environment, which will stimulate children to interact with the environment more fully. Using the environment for active activities Children's understanding of things is formed through their own perception and activities, so the construction of the material environment creates conditions for children to gain knowledge and experience through active activities and improve their ability. At the same time, children's activity performance provides a basis for the reconstruction of the material environment. In the colorful environment of corner activities created by our classes, children >: Active activities have been fully reflected. Children can freely choose all kinds of materials prepared by teachers for them, and gain knowledge and experience through spontaneous learning or games. Children with different ability levels can choose and adjust their own learning content through their own activities, explore and try according to their own wishes, and do things within their own ability, so that their ability level can be fully exerted. Teachers adjust the activity environment in time according to the children's activities, so that the environment can really and effectively promote the development of children. In the whole process of children's participation in the material environment, the interaction between teachers and students and between people and the environment is reflected, and such environmental construction is an educational function with higher level and deeper connotation. Not only in the material form, it is more vivid, rich and full of childlike interest, but also sublimated into a more advanced spiritual form, that is, forming a good psychological environment for children. Let children participate in the construction of physical environment, which can make the physical environment more in line with children's age characteristics and physical and mental development laws, stimulate their interest and attention to the environment, and meet their psychological needs, so as to make the environment interact with children, teachers and children, and form a harmonious living space for children, thus exerting a subtle influence on children's knowledge, emotion, will and behavior, and promoting their healthy development. 2. The effect of children's participation in the layout of the physical environment on their development. Intelligent and enlightening environmental construction should focus on enriching children's knowledge, increasing their ability and stimulating their curiosity and thirst for knowledge. For example, each class in our garden combines educational goals and creates a theme column on the wall according to the age characteristics and cognitive development level of children, which is rich in content; There are themes to celebrate various festivals, themes to love the motherland and hometown, themes to reflect the characteristics of the four seasons, and themes to be loved by children. The rich theme content deeply attracts young children, who are not only subtly educated, but also greatly improve their cognitive development, language ability and practical ability through their participation in layout and lectures. Children learn and explore in the interaction with the environment and materials, thus stimulating their interest in learning and desire for knowledge. For example, in the wall decoration of "Kissing Small Animals" in the small class, the pictures and pictures selected are chickens and rabbits that are common to children. When children participate in the arrangement of this wall decoration, they can also roughly understand the general appearance characteristics of these small animals. Emotional infectivity First of all, the beautification of the environment can cultivate children's interest and ability to feel beauty, appreciate beauty and express beauty. We strive to create an environment by respecting children's aesthetic interests and satisfying their aesthetic needs. For the environmental layout of each educational theme, we not only use its rich theme content to educate children, but also strive to create an atmosphere with beautiful modeling, color, art and childlike interest to infect children. In the classroom, the combined stickers made by teachers and students let the children experience the pleasure of expressing and creating beauty, and also feel the joy of cooperation and success. Secondly, the construction of physical environment can enhance children's understanding of the environment and cultivate children's interest in loving nature, beautifying and protecting the environment. Therefore, we should strive to create a material environment that constantly interacts with children, so that children can truly become the initiative of environmental design. For example, when creating the theme environment of "beautiful spring", children can first find the characteristics of spring by themselves: spring has arrived, flowers are blooming, leaves are sprouting, …… In the process of collecting "spring", children fully feel what spring is through the use of various senses. When they return to the classroom with petals, photos, pictures and other materials, the teacher will guide the children to decorate the environment of "beautiful spring" with these materials. In the process of layout, the teacher will let the children discuss the ideas and layout themselves, instead of replacing the children to decorate. In the whole process of children's personal participation in environmental layout, they not only gain new knowledge through observation, conception and hands-on, but also develop their hands-on ability and creativity. I think, similarly, when summer, autumn and winter come, children can also collect, communicate and decorate the environment. With the coming of different seasons, the walls of the classroom are constantly "talking" in the hands of children, and children also deeply understand the four seasons in the arrangement.