Hou Limin: What is the value of a day in kindergarten?

The day-to-day life organization of kindergarten can be explained as the arrangement of daily activities in kindergarten and its time allocation. It is based on the established life system and is randomly adjusted according to the actual situation, with a certain degree of flexibility. Children\’s daily life in kindergarten should be filled with rich and diverse activities. In addition to games and teaching activities, daily activities such as washing, eating, going to the toilet, and sleeping are also important ways to educate young children to develop good hygiene habits, behavioral quality, and lively and cheerful personalities. 01 What is the value of a day\’s life? Since the promulgation and implementation of the \”Kindergarten Work Regulations\” and \”Kindergarten Education Guidance Outline (Trial)\”, teachers have fully realized that daily activities in kindergartens are mainly included in the daily life of children. Life is an important way to help young children form good living habits and learning qualities. However, in practice, there are still great differences in the behavior of different teachers in realizing and implementing the value of daily life education. Let’s look at two cases first: Case 1 After finishing lunch, Haohao walked to the door of the inner room with a chair and asked Teacher Wang who was scooping soup for the children inside: \”Teacher, where are the chairs?\” Teacher Wang replied: \”Put them inside. \”Haohao repeated: \”Put it inside.\” He took a few steps forward with the chair, and suddenly turned back and said to Teacher Wang inside, \”Teacher, I want to sit outside.\” Teacher Wang is busy. Ladle soup for other children, no answer. Haohao said again: \”Teacher, I want to sit outside.\” Teacher Wang shook his head. So Haohao carried the chair and went inside. Case 2 After breakfast, Lele lay in front of the window in a daze. Teacher Li learned during the chat that he did not want to play with table toys and wanted to go outside, so he agreed. So Lele \”ran\” out, and then many voices in the class came out: \”I want to go too.\” After Teacher Li agreed, almost all the children in the class moved outdoors for activities. After returning to the classroom, they kept asking: \”Can I still go tomorrow?\” Teacher Li had an idea and started a conversation activity, \”What do you want to do in the morning? What do you want to play?\” to stimulate the children\’s thinking. After the discussion, teachers and children jointly developed a series of activities called \”I take charge of morning activities\”. During the same meal time, the two teachers had completely different attitudes towards young children and methods of handling problems. Teacher Wang’s method is obviously familiar to many teachers. In the daily life of kindergarten, routine management occupies a large part. Studies have shown that the rules and regulations in daily life in many kindergartens are \”specific in content, diverse in variety, and strict in requirements.\” Among them, daily routines account for a large proportion, which makes teachers spend a lot of energy in correcting children\’s unconventional behaviors in their daily work. For example, children are required to line up to go to the toilet, and children who get food first must wait until the teacher gives an order before they can eat, etc. The management of daily life does require rules, but as a teacher, what you need to think about is whether these rule requirements are consistent with the learning style of young children? How to meet the learning needs of children while facilitating teachers’ management? Teacher Li\’s handling method undoubtedly provides us with a good example. That is, inUnder the premise of adhering to certain systems, leaving space for children\’s development not only meets the needs of children, but also poses certain challenges to children\’s development, and at the same time promotes children\’s practical operations. Teacher Li\’s handling method fully takes into account the learning style of children, and the daily life organized in this way has educational value. The existence of all aspects of a day\’s life in kindergarten, including \”entry and departure, daily life (meals, naps, toiletries, defecation, etc.), transition, group teaching activities, free games, activity areas, and outdoor activities\” are all due to the The needs of young children have their own irreplaceable value. Emphasizing or underestimating any aspect may destroy the overall balance of children\’s lives, and may lead to deviations in children\’s learning or development. For example, if most children show great interest and enthusiasm in the activities they participate in, the teacher may wish to extend the time of the activity; on the other hand, if the children show inattention and fatigue to a certain activity, the teacher may extend the activity to Make the time shorter. For another example, there are no strict spatial regulations on the daily arrangement and organization of kindergarten activities. For example, games and teaching activities must be conducted indoors. Sports must be conducted outdoors, so teachers can arrange children\’s activities in different places based on the actual situation of the kindergarten or class. In short, a good one-day activity system and a relatively fixed activity process can help children develop orderly living habits, so that children can achieve self-restraint without feeling external pressure, be free and comfortable without disturbing the collective order, and be free in activities and activities. Achieve an overall balance between rest, indoor and outdoor activities, high-volume and low-volume activities, and ultimately enable children to fully develop their physical and mental potential. In the various activities of daily life, there are not only the teacher\’s childcare responsibilities, but also the corresponding learning content for the children. These are not simply adults caring for young children, but adults caring for and nurturing the presence of young children. For example: after getting up after a nap, the teacher\’s childcare work is to keep the room ventilated and breathable, and adjust the brightness, humidity and comfort of the room to help and support the children. Children must gradually learn to dress and fold quilts by themselves under the guidance of teachers, and develop the good habit of \”doing their own things by themselves\”. Therefore, a day\’s life in kindergarten is like a framework. For young children, a day\’s life is organized around the activities in this framework. Within this framework, children gradually learn and acquire the abilities to take care of themselves, social etiquette, self-protection, environmental sanitation, and rules of life. At the same time, young children begin to learn and adapt to the rules required for collective life and accumulate various experiences in interacting with peers or others. Teachers largely lead the construction of this framework. The arrangement and division of time, space and other factors determine whether children can live every day of life that is valuable to them. 02 The \”Guide\” emphasizes the educational value of a day\’s life. The \”Guide to the Learning and Development of Children Aged 3-6\” (herein referred to as the \”Guide\”) points out in the \”Explanation\” section: Children\’s learning is based on direct experience, and in games and carried out in daily life. We must cherish the unique value of games and life, create a rich educational environment, reasonably arrange daily life, and maximize support and satisfaction.In order to meet the needs of young children to gain experience through direct perception, practical operation and personal experience, it is strictly prohibited to \”drain the growth\” type of advance education and intensive training. The \”Guide\” proposes reasonable arrangements and organization of daily life based on children\’s learning characteristics and methods. Modern educational theory and child development theory have basically reached a consensus in discussions on how children learn, that is, children learn and develop in the process of actively interacting with various factors in the environment, especially the learning of preschool children. , mainly action-oriented rather than text-symbol-oriented. It can be seen that direct participation in gaining experience is an essential element for young children to learn. Curriculum for young children should be based on real experiences and real events. Therefore, in children\’s daily activities, whether it is activities guided by teachers or activities chosen by children, children should be given opportunities to operate, directly observe and experiment, so that they can gain personal experience and understanding, and be able to express it in their own words The process of how things happen. This kind of learning is meaningful to young children. The \”Guide\” emphasizes the educational value of one-day life in five major areas. For example, in the language field, it points out: 01 Children\’s language learning needs corresponding social experience support, and children\’s life experience should be expanded through a variety of activities to enrich language content. , enhance understanding and expression skills. 02 Children should be guided to naturally develop an interest in words in daily life situations and reading activities. Using mechanical memory and intensive training to make children read early is not in line with their learning characteristics and receptive abilities. This emphasizes that children\’s language ability is not developed through teachers\’ \”teaching\”, but \”acquired\” in daily life, and direct experience is very important. However, in the practice of kindergarten education and teaching, we find phenomena such as \”emphasis on teaching and neglect of daily life\” and \”emphasis on training and neglect of children\’s direct experience\”. The reasons are as follows: First, teachers believe that eating, drinking, sleeping, sleeping, etc. are the responsibility of the nursery teacher. Things are not the main content of teachers\’ work; the second is that they are affected by deep-rooted traditional concepts. Among various activities in daily life, specially organized teaching activity periods are often what teachers value and care about the most. Teaching and research activities in kindergartens are also mainly focused on teachers\’ \”teaching\”, and \”teaching evaluation activities\” in various kindergartens are also carried out around \”lecturing\” and \”observation of teaching\”. Because of this, teachers are accustomed to thinking about how to implement and carry out the learning content in the five major areas proposed in the \”Guide\” in the teaching activities of the five major areas, and outdoor free activities, naps, meals, and even games or activity areas, etc. Generally not taken seriously. From this point of view, the implementation of the \”Guidelines\” requires a long-term process and a complete change of concepts. \”It is not enough to just know the concepts of children, education, learning and other concepts. What you know does not mean what you believe.\” , what to pursue”. Therefore, to implement the Guidelines, we must first understand and agree with the concepts of the Guidelines, and adhere to the spirit of the Guidelines to guide educational practice. 01 First of all, we must face up to the existing problems, that is, under the premise of the \”teaching-centered\” paradigm, how to correct the \”teaching-based learning\” emphasis on teaching plans, teaching materials, and the achievement of predetermined goals has become our currentIt is a powerful weapon for us to overcome the \”primary schoolization\” of early childhood education. 02 Secondly, we must carefully and carefully study the living world of young children, pay attention to their various experiences of life, understand their thoughts and feelings, and understand the way children interact with the world. In the daily life of kindergarten, teachers should provide children with various forms of communication opportunities, especially opportunities for individual communication. They should also pay attention to providing children with opportunities to move freely, make personal choices, and have individual contact. Such an arrangement It provides many opportunities for informal learning, enabling children to understand and consciously abide by the rules required for collective life while feeling \”free\”, and to experience the joy of creation and growth while experiencing their own strength. In short, the \”Guide\” emphasizes that a day\’s life in kindergarten is a nurturing educational activity. Only by making full use of various educational channels and scientifically and rationally arranging and organizing children\’s day\’s life can we maximize the use of various aspects of kindergarten. educational value of activities.