The world of nature in children's imagination has always been diverse and rich. The thinking of a child under 10 years old remains figurative, therefore children regard nature and its inhabitants as equal and thinking members of the earthly community. The task of teachers and parents is to maintain children's interest in nature and its inhabitants in accessible and interesting ways. The simplest and most effective means of introducing little why with the animal world will be the means of an artistic word. An indispensable assistant for an adult is literature: fairy tales, poems, stories about animals.
The specifics of children's works on animals
The works recommended for children's reading are distinguished by the simplicity and accessibility of images, determined by the construction of the storyline. The story about animals for children is built on this principle: introduction, complication, increasing tension, climax, denouement. The main characters of the works are animated, endowed with certain qualities and character traits. This makes the work accessible and understandable to children's perception, easy to remember, causing an emotional response, which is especially important in the process of educating the environmental consciousness of a preschooler and primary school student. In such stories, animals are personified, which does not deprive the work of a real biological basis.
The main characters in children's stories about animals
An important place in children's stories about smaller brothers is given to the main character. Children, thinking in images, are happy to accept the main character, who can speak, sing, but at the same time retain the habits of the animal. In the image of the hero, the fantastic beginning is connected with the cognitive, stories about animals for children carry truthful and accurate information about the life of the animal world in an accessible form. In the story itself, a “biography” of the hero can be traced with a detailed description of the biological conditions of existence. Considering that the animal is endowed with speech and mental functions, it can be said that children perceive educational information with interest and emotional coloring. The game remains the leading activity of the child of preschool and primary school age , children's works reflect this feature of the children's worldview, so the actions that take place with the main characters carry a game and entertainment component.
Humanism in animal stories for children
Stories, tales and a story about animals for children are actively used in the pedagogical process. In order to develop a child's caring attitude and love for nature, it is necessary to make him recognize it. Ignorance of nature, lack of understanding of its importance in human life leads to the fact that a small person forms an indifferent attitude to the world, up to cruelty. Specialists in pedagogy consider the children's story, the children's story to be the main means of environmental education. “A child is his own person in the realm of the miraculous. It seems surprising to him not a miracle, but the absence of a miracle, ”wrote K.I. Chukovsky. Stories for children about the life of animals fill the world of a child with a miracle, fairy tale, fiction, interwoven with reality.
Wildlife World in Children's Works
A child’s acquaintance with the natural world will not be complete and harmonious without familiarization with the world of wild animals. Even the smallest child knows that animals live in the forest. Folk wisdom expressed in fairy tales endowed animals with human habits, thereby bringing the world of nature closer to the world of the child, making it accessible and more understandable. Toddlers begin to be interested in the life of the forest, and its inhabitants, wild animals, are of great interest. Stories for children are aimed at introducing children to the appearance and habits of animals, the characteristic features of each animal, and the conditions of existence. The story itself should have a vibrant dynamic plot, be entertaining and emotional. Only in this way can he be better remembered and become understandable to children. Of the classics, experts recommend using the following works for children's stories: “Who lives in the forest and what grows in the forest” by Yu. Dmitriev, “At the Zoo” by V. Chaplina.
Pets in children's stories
The world of pets is extremely rich and interesting to children. Even in early childhood, many of the children have such a necessary opportunity to contact with pets - cats, dogs, birds, etc. Animals become as much an integral part of childhood as their favorite toys. A variety of situations of communication with pets give a large supply of ideas about their characteristics, habits, arouse interest, curiosity, and form skills for interacting with them. For a child, a world called pets is extremely close. The story for children continues to show the child a realistic picture of the life of pets, the characters in the stories can be endowed with human qualities, they can be more real representatives of the world of pets. Classics recommend using the following works for telling children: “These are all cats”, “These are all dogs” by N. Akimushkina and others.
Northern residents and children
Often, kids, knowing quite well the world of wild and domestic animals, begin to be interested in other inhabitants of the planet, their life, habits, living conditions. A convenient object for study in this case will be animals living in the north. The specifics of studying such animals is that, on the one hand, they are close and slightly familiar to children, on the other hand, the animals of the north are somewhat different from ordinary inhabitants of the forest . For children, the story has primarily a cognitive and developmental function: improving the skills of comparing animals of the forest and northern animals, determining the similarities and differences between them, their lifestyle. The main characters of such stories can be endowed with human qualities, for example, like the Umka bear cub in the tale of polar bears. Such an image will be close and interesting to children, moreover, understandable. Older children are also eager to associate the inhabitants of the Far North with fabulous heroes and characters.
Children's stories about their own observations
Listening to an adult's story about an interesting animal world, a child mentally gets into this wonderful world, breathes the atmosphere of a forest, travels with a teacher. Gradually, the child gets used to such stories, as he grows up, he realizes that the wonderful world of the story is close to a fairy tale, but at the same time it completely recreates reality. Most children have a desire to independently tell stories from the lives of little friends. Initially, children simply copy the teacher’s stories, retelling them to parents, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends. Gradually, the storytelling process improves, the child already independently describes the habits and living conditions of the animals he knows. The teacher and parents need to ensure that stories invented by children about animals, closely reflected the reality of the existence of wild or domestic pets.
Realistic animal stories for kids
Endowment of animals with human qualities for younger preschool children helps to quickly and more fully imagine the life and habits of small pets and animals in the forest. Due to the specifics of thinking of a preschool child, this method is often necessary to improve the quality of education. A realistic story about animals for children is designed to give older children the notion that cute little pets are not toys! Each animal has its own habits and character, so you can’t take a kitten or dog for a few days, and then ruthlessly throw it out on the street, because the animal does not just get used to people - it trusts them. Realistic stories will help kids understand the rules of keeping pets, the features of caring for them, the measure of responsibility when deciding to take a little four-legged friend into the house. Stories about animals for children of preschool age are selected taking into account the realism and specificity of thinking of a preschool child. The images of animals in children's stories, along with realistic traits and habits, can act as fairy-tale characters, interesting to kids and close to perception.
Consideration of the age category of babies when selecting stories about animals
When choosing an assortment of children's stories for working with preschool children, the age of the preschool child should be taken into account. The story about animals for young children is characterized by simplicity of construction, melodious sound and the availability of images. They are small in volume, the main characters in such stories, as a rule, are characters familiar to kids: cats, dogs, and a bunny. As a child grows up, story images for children become more complex. Exotic characters: monkey, elephant, tiger are already available for middle-aged preschool kids. In addition, animals of the forest are actively included in the plots of children's stories: squirrel, fox, wolf, bear. Do not forget also about pets, at this age stage the formation of differentiation is already taking place: domestic and wild animals.
Animal Stories for Senior Preschoolers and Junior Schoolchildren
For older preschoolers, as well as for younger schoolchildren, stories should be selected with both fabulous and realistic elements to form a holistic picture of the reflection of the surrounding world. Naturally, animals for stories of children of preschool age are also selected without restrictions, since the task of teachers and parents at this stage is to expand the horizons of the child and comprehensive awareness of environmental objects. By this age period, the processes of classification and generalization have already been actively formed, therefore children developing in the norm correlate animals and the environment, habits and habits of the animal and the rules for caring for it without problems.