Children start to be interested in cubes and designers quite early on. At first they just manipulate toys, try to connect two parts, put one block on another. A little later, there is a desire to create buildings for dolls. Gradually, the designs become more complicated: the captain needs a ship, the astronaut needs a rocket, a stage is needed for a theatrical performance. Building-constructive games allow kids to show their positive activity, so they are so popular among preschool children and their parents.
Definition
The term itself has appeared relatively recently. The concept of "building-constructive game" is first encountered in the works of P. G. Samorukova and V. R. Lisina. Nevertheless, this type of children's activity is well studied in both domestic and foreign pedagogy. Games with building materials are provided for in Montessori, Frebel, Schleger preschool systems. Much attention was paid to them by V.G. Nechaev, A.N. Davidchuk, Z. V. Lishtvan, L.A. Paramonova, etc.
The main feature of such games is their proximity to creative human activity. After all, being engaged in construction, the child creates his own architectural structures.
Characteristics
Teachers note the proximity of role-playing and building-constructive games. A feature of both of them is the presence of a game plan, borrowed from real life, the inclusion of children in an imaginary situation, the collective and creative nature of the activity. The children are aware of the conventions of what is happening, but are fully included in the process.
Both types of games are aimed at studying the world and adult activities. The role-playing game explores the relationship between people. Creative design reproduces the surrounding reality through a variety of buildings. These types of games easily replace and complement each other: when building a house, the children imagine themselves as installers and masons, and then populate it with small animals.
Construction material
So that children have the opportunity to engage in design, it is necessary to properly organize the subject environment in kindergarten and at home. The following types of building material are distinguished:
- artificial (all kinds of designers, floor modular blocks, desktop building material, mosaic, paper, cardboard);
- natural (sand, pebbles, clay, twigs, cones, snow, leaves);
- utility room (boxes, boards, boxes).
It is desirable that construction kits are appropriate for the age of children, be varied and attractive.
Game guide
For a long time it was believed that the task of adults is to provide the child with the necessary materials. How to handle cubes and constructor correctly, he will be able to figure it out himself. However, pedagogical observations showed that without special training, the games of children with building material are reduced to primitive manipulation.
Hence the tasks facing modern educators. They should introduce children to various construction methods, develop the content of independent games and form friendships among the kids. It is important to teach the pupils to analyze the structures seen, to select the appropriate material, to plan the upcoming work.
Management of building and construction games provides for two ways:
- The organization of special classes, in which children get acquainted with the characteristics of materials, master various ways of fastening: gluing, applying, screwing in, stitching, etc.
- Inclusion of a teacher in independent games of children as an equal partner, inconspicuous training in their new technical skills.
Goals of the building game
By constructing a castle or a pirate ship from small details, children develop comprehensively. The main goals of the building and construction game are:
- expanding the knowledge of children about the work of builders, the technique they use;
- education of artistic taste, interest in architectural structures;
- vocabulary expansion;
- the formation of a variety of sensory standards (shape, size, color, size, etc.);
- development of constructive and creative abilities;
- improvement of fine motor skills;
- education of industriousness, independence, resourcefulness, initiative;
- development of spatial imagination, mental operations (comparison, analysis, synthesis);
- the formation of teamwork, teamwork.
Types of building games
Preschool pedagogy carefully studied the features of children's play. Attention was paid to the design of all kinds of materials. As a result, the following classification was developed, which is actively used by teachers in kindergartens:
- Patterning. Children reproduce the building after the teacher or focusing on the scheme, drawing, drawing.
- Design by model. Kids show the finished building. They independently divide it into its constituent parts, select details of the necessary shape and reproduce the model.
- Design by conditions. Children are announced the parameters that the building must comply with (two-story house for small toys, a garage for two cars with a driveway). However, a visual sample is not given. Children themselves generate ideas and embody them using various materials.
- Designing on the topic. Preschoolers independently choose materials and techniques with which they will work, develop a project without the help of adults. The teacher calls only the topic of building and constructive games: cars of the future, city, animals.
- Design by design. The child himself decides what and how he will build, learns to implement his own project. For a preschooler, this is the most difficult task.
First Junior Group
Cubes can be placed on top of each other from about 8-9 months old. Thus, already by the year children get acquainted with building-constructive games. In different age groups, they have their own characteristics. So, kids 2-3 years old play with simple building sets of plates, cubes, prisms and bricks. They learn their names, train to distinguish between shapes, colors, sizes.
The teacher offers the children to engage in designing according to the model. The simplest techniques are studied: horizontal placement of parts (track), laying (tower, staircase), enclosed structures (fence, house), elementary ceilings (bridge, garage).
A feature of this age is that children play nearby, but not together. We need to teach kids not to interfere with each other. At the beginning of the year, classes are held in small groups of 4-8 people, and only from the second half of the year all pupils can be involved. Erected buildings must be played with toys.
Second Junior Group
The organization of building and construction games for children 3-4 years old involves the use of special kits and designers, as well as natural materials: snow, sand. The skills acquired at the previous stage of training are improved. The teacher teaches children to work in groups of 2-3 people, coordinate actions, together rejoice at the result.
Elements of problematic learning are introduced when children are invited to change the initial design: expand the track for a large truck, make the fence around the house higher. The idea of the colors, shapes, sizes of individual parts and structures from them is fixed. To foster interest in designing, the teacher teaches the kids to play with the buildings, gives out beautiful figurative toys.
Middle group
Four-year-old children are able to notice the beauty of buildings, streets, bridges and other structures of their hometown. During excursions they are invited to consider the buildings, break them into separate parts. The game displays the received impressions. At the same time, a variety of materials are used: designers, kits for building creativity, paper, cardboard, coils, natural materials, pieces of plywood, etc.
Increasingly, the teacher asks the children to choose their own theme for the games, the content of which is expanding significantly. Children build steamboats, cars, trains, multi-storey buildings. We need to teach them how to work together, to distribute tasks. The best option is when everyone designs one object (a bridge, road, gas station, traffic light, house), and as a result, a space for a common game (for example, a city) is obtained.
Of the techniques, a demonstration of the sample for reproduction, co-creation is used, when children are invited to make changes to the structure (make it higher, longer, add a floor, attach a porch or other details). At this age, it is necessary to show how the same workpiece (for example, a car) can be turned into various objects (bus, train, tram). An analysis of the building-constructive game is necessarily carried out, children are taught to evaluate their contribution to the work, to notice interesting finds of comrades.
Senior group
Children of 5-6 years old learn to independently plan collective work, coordinate the plan, distribute roles. Building and construction games for children of this age include the use of photographs instead of a sample. The teacher shows how a complex building can be divided into smaller parts, teaches to notice the main features of the design. Actively applied verbal methods (story, explanation).
Each topic (city, school, train station, dollhouse, zoo, farm) is studied in several stages. On the first of them, children build simple buildings on the model, full or partial. The teacher demonstrates new technological methods (for example, mobile fastening). At the second stage, the children are invited to construct according to the condition (to assemble a house with a store on the first floor or a bedroom for two dolls). Subsequently, children apply the acquired skills in the process of role-playing game, collectively erecting complex buildings without the help of adults.
Preparatory group
Children of this age are actively preparing for school. They should be able to independently plan their actions, analyze the work done. Much attention is paid to the education of responsibility, discipline, hard work. Creativity is encouraged. Sample educators are rarely used. It is replaced by photographs and plane drawings. Preschoolers are taught to draw sketches of imaginary buildings on paper, and then build volumetric objects, focusing on them.
Techniques for making toys and structures are becoming more complex. Children work with a metal constructor, make various paper products from patterns, assemble characters with moving elements (legs, arms, etc.). With great enthusiasm, older preschoolers are greeted by the educator's offer to make beautiful toys for kids or to arrange an exhibition of crafts.
Natural material construction
Children love to dig in the sand, collect beautiful pebbles and leaves. However, without the guidance of an adult, such building-construction games are monotonous. The educator should teach kids new techniques. The sandbox is a great place to build. Younger preschoolers play it with tins, scoops and pails.
In the older group, children learn to dig holes, tunnels, wells and ponds. Tamping a hill of sand, they build castles and houses. The creation of entire complexes is recommended (river pier, forest, city). In addition to sand, children can use branches, pebbles. Of these, the teacher teaches to lay out patterns on the model. From the cones are funny inhabitants of the sand country.
Snow games
Winter is a great time to build. Toddlers learn to fill the slides, sculpt snowballs and cookies for the northern bear. Together with the tutor they make a snowman. In the middle and senior groups, you can learn modeling from clods. Thus, figures of people, animals are made. For strength, they are doused with water.
The compacted snow makes magnificent bricks. They are used for the construction of a fortress, a bridge, a ship. Preschoolers like to decorate the site with colored ice floes, to help adults erect snow slides.
Building-constructive game helps to develop imagination and mental operations in children, teaches them in purposeful activities. The task of adults is to provide the child with a variety of materials and to engage in a fascinating creative process.