Gender characteristics of play activities of preschool children. The main stages of play activity in preschool age

On fourth year Throughout life, the development of all organs and psychological functions of the child continues. The efficiency of the nervous system increases, endurance increases, and the time of active wakefulness increases. The main developmental activity of a four-year-old child is games. They become more complex, and simulation and group games are added. In the game, the child learns to communicate with peers, control his behavior, obeying the rules of the game, in which he can show miracles of patience, perseverance, and discipline. Here he develops creative imagination, intelligence, strong-willed qualities, and moral attitudes.

In the fourth or fifth year Throughout life, a child not only actively masters speech, he creatively masters the language and engages in word creation. Uses all parts of speech. With the help of educational games, a child can generalize, make connections, and classify objects according to a certain criterion at a higher level. At the age of 4-5 years, conscious memorization and recollection begin to form; many children show an active interest in letters and numbers - and educational games help with this. Reading helps develop symbolic thinking.

With a four-year-old child, you can play all kinds of word games that well develop the auditory analyzer, that is, the ability to hear and listen. There is an active memorization of new words united by some characteristic (words starting with the letter “A”; antonym words; words denoting food, etc.), the child’s active vocabulary is replenished, and the brain develops. The child’s perception becomes meaningful and analytical. Thanks to this, there is a transition from visually effective to visually figurative thinking.

In the fifth year In life, children more freely determine the relative position of objects in space, using plans for such an arrangement. When performing tasks to develop imagination, children create not only individual images, they are already able to imagine various situations in their minds, expanded and detailed. However, the games offered are designed for the increased capabilities of children and are aimed at developing new skills in them.

At the age of 5, the child enters the category of senior preschoolers. This period marks the beginning of active preparation for school. The skills acquired in early preschool age allow a five-year-old child to purposefully develop the skills necessary for a future first-grader. At this age, a child can already learn the norms and rules of behavior, thanks to which his activities and games have a more orderly character, compared to a younger age.

A child of the sixth year of life still strives for independence and recognition from older comrades and parents. Adults should take this aspect into account and create the prerequisites for the child’s self-realization: entrust him with feasible tasks, emphasizing their importance, praise the child, model situations that require decisive action from the child. But at the same time, do not forget that difficult tasks can lead to the opposite result - they reveal difficulties and undermine the child’s faith in his own abilities. The result of a child’s independent actions should be a feeling of pride and awareness of his own importance.

When preparing a child for school, it is important to develop his desire for research activities, to introduce him to the essence of the subject, focusing on the details and nuances of a particular area. Any activity should be visual. If at 4 years old the result of any process is not of decisive importance for the child, then in the sixth year of life the baby can, on the contrary, speed up the process in order to quickly see the fruit of his labors. In this regard, one of the main skills that require correction at this stage is the development of perseverance and concentration. A lot of time should be devoted to developing fine motor skills and hand coordination, which are necessary to prepare the hand for writing. Some children of this age begin to show interest in learning and reading. Practice shows that these classes are fruitful only if the child masters this type of knowledge of his own free will, without pressure from adults. Otherwise, the result may be the opposite - the child develops a persistent aversion to everything related to books, and this creates additional problems at school. Despite the soundness of the term “preparing for schooling,” adults should not forget that classes should continue to be conducted in a playful way, using didactic visual material.

FEATURES OF GAME ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT AT EACH AGE STAGE

1. Junior preschool age (3–4 years)
   Play for young children is the main activity through which the child receives unique opportunity entering the world of adults, learning ways to relate to social reality, oneself, and peers. Children's play provides the child with the opportunity to realize his own needs and abilities. This is a kind of “experimental platform” for testing yourself, determining the boundaries of your capabilities. The youngest preschooler shows interest in various types of games: active, didactic, creative, construction-constructive. Each of these types of games has its own meaning for a child. In outdoor games, movements are improved and self-discipline develops; in didactic, the tasks of mental development are primarily solved. Role-playing games occupy a special place. They help the preschooler understand the purpose and properties of objects; understand the logic of simple life situations (feeding a doll lunch, bathing a teddy bear, going to visit, etc.). In role-playing games, the child expresses his emotions and feelings, which to a certain extent allows him to cope with difficult situations in real life. The main task of the teacher is to enrich the gaming experience of younger preschoolers. It develops the ability to assume a game role, perform game actions in accordance with the accepted role; encourages independence and initiative, children's attempts to select attributes for the role, missing play material. A child of four years of age learns to reflect in games a simple plot, represented by a series of sequential actions. The teacher attracts children to participate in joint games with him based on plots on topics of the surrounding life (family life, kindergarten, travel on transport), as well as on plots of literary works (fairy tales “Teremok”, “Turnip”, “Mashenka is having lunch” by S. Kaputikyan, “My Bear” 3. Alexandrova, “Aibolit” by K. Chukovsky). The use of substitute objects (a stick - a thermometer, a cube - soap) indicates the mental development of the child. Therefore, adults encourage their use in children's games.

Outdoor games are simple in nature, given the unformed ability of children to retain “in their minds” a large number of rules and the sequence of their implementation. Therefore, games are organized based on 1-2 rules that require simultaneous and alternate actions (at the teacher’s signal): “Catch up with me”, “Hen and chicks”, etc. Games are offered for performing a variety of movements: walking, running, jumping, etc. . The purpose of organizing outdoor games is not only to solve the problems of physical education, but also to develop positive emotions obtained from performing various movements and playing together with peers.
Didactic games are aimed at solving problems of intellectual and cognitive development of preschool children, as well as developing the arbitrariness of mental processes. In games with didactic material, the child masters the properties and characteristics of objects, learns to perform actions according to the rules, and obey the order of their execution in games with a subgroup of children. The teacher encourages independent play with elementary rules in pairs of children. Didactic games play a major role in the sensory education of younger preschoolers. In the process of games, children master the system of perceptual actions, learn the features of shape, size of objects, their color and location in space.

It is important to teach children to enter into playful dialogues, first in pair play with the teacher, and then with peers, to encourage manifestations of goodwill towards the play partner. If a child experiences difficulties in playful communication with other children, the teacher includes him in the game gradually: first he plays with the child himself, and then includes him in the general game, taking into account the child’s sympathies, his individual characteristics and gaming interests.

II. Middle preschool age (4–5 years)

In middle preschool age, further development and enrichment occurs play activity children. This is facilitated by the accumulated in previous years gaming experience. Children begin to show a more active interest in playful interaction with peers and strive to unite in games. Taking this into account, the teacher develops friendly relationships between children, carefully studies children’s interactions with peers, and creates conditions for joint independent games in small subgroups (2-3 people).

The main task of the teacher is to help enrich children’s independent play experience. The teacher's guidance of children's games is aimed at solving a number of problems. The first is the development of plots, themes of games, enrichment of the content of game actions, the formation of skills to establish various role-playing relationships, conduct role-playing dialogue, create a game environment using real objects and their substitutes, and act in real and imaginary game situations. The second task is aimed at enriching the social experience of preschool children, which forms the reflective basis of children's games. In the process of observations, reading fiction, and conversations with children, the teacher expands their range of interests, stimulates and supports children’s desire for friendly communication with peers during play activities.

In a setting of joint games, by example, the teacher shows children how best to come to an agreement, distribute roles, and how to satisfy the needs of everyone who wants to take part in the game through plot development. Using the role-playing capabilities of a game participant, he encourages children to be creative and to change the game environment.
An important place in the development of game plots is given to the toy. A new toy prompts the child to develop new play ideas and to reflect new aspects of life in games. Therefore, play sets for the middle group should contain dolls of different sizes, different genders, different professions (sailor, astronaut, doctor), sets of furniture, dishes, clothes, various types of transport, domestic and wild animals. It is necessary to have a variety of building materials, as children not only create structures, but also use large building materials for play layouts. The group needs a supply of additional playing material: boxes, twine, reels, sticks, scraps, etc.; all this finds application in a gaming situation and contributes to the development of gaming ideas and creativity.

To develop the expressiveness of play behavior, imagination and creative manifestations, it is necessary to provide children with appropriate items for use: elements of costumes of fairy-tale characters, animal masks, emblems with images of favorite literary characters (Matroskin the Cat, Mickey Mouse). This allows you to independently reproduce your favorite episodes of fairy tales and animated films in dramatization games.

During the day, children are involved by the teacher in a variety of games: role-playing, moving, theatrical, round dancing, musical, educational, etc. Some of them are suggested by the teacher and used as a means of solving certain problems. For example, games with ready-made content and rules are used to develop attention, the ability to compare, act according to an elementary algorithm, to develop counting skills and speech skills.

A significant part of the time is allocated for free games of the children's choice. The teacher’s task in this case is to create conditions for varied play activities through an appropriate object-based play environment: a variety of toys, substitute objects, materials for play creativity, and educational printed board games. Children in the middle group are jealous of their play areas and show open negativism towards peers who invade them without asking. This can serve as a source of conflicts, which can be avoided by a well-thought-out environment: the presence of screens, play mats, which serve to mark the boundaries of play spaces. The rest of the children learn to respect the play space of those playing.

The teacher shows by example that it is impossible to enter their playing field without the permission of the children playing. He can “knock” on their door, “call them on the phone,” ask “for permission to land his plane,” or simply make a request to the players. This behavior of an adult becomes an example to follow.

Forming in children the habit of not throwing toys away is also the subject of the teacher’s educational activities. To do this, the group needs to determine where toys are stored and teach children to follow the established order.

Role-playing games. Children's games reflect a variety of everyday scenes and new impressions about the life and work of people (family, store, kindergarten, hairdresser, etc.). Play groups (2–5 children) are completely independent in nature. The content of the game is based on reflecting a plot of 4-6 semantic episodes of social reality or the content of favorite fairy tales.

Shows interest in construction games. Games can be independent (in terms of plot) or included in the content of role-playing games. Showing interest in theatrical and gaming activities is expressed in participation, together with the teacher, in dramatization games on the themes of favorite fairy tales (“Turnip”, “Cat, Rooster and Fox”, “Teremok”, etc.). In the middle group, children are able to determine the theme, plot, and assign roles before starting the game (at the beginning of the year with the help of a teacher, then independently); coordinate game actions in accordance with the accepted role. In accordance with the plot plan, the child develops the ability to establish different role connections within the framework of one plot theme: mother - father - daughter, doctor - patient - nurse. Role-playing dialogue is actively developing. Children are able to use various substitute objects, carry out imaginary actions and accept imaginary play actions of other players (“As if we had already returned from a walk, now we will wash our hands and have lunch”).

In creative games, in facial expressions, gestures, movements, children convey the different emotional states of the characters (The boy was scared alone in a dark room, his mother caressed him, he smiles); in gestures and movements, the physical characteristics of the characters: big birds and small birds are flying, a big bear and a small bunny are walking in the snow).

The teacher encourages preschoolers to strive to create their own play environment (set up a room for dolls, a store, a hairdresser, a doctor’s office, a garage, etc.).

Didactic games. During games, the teacher encourages children to actively solve cognitive problems, fosters concentration, attention, and perseverance in achieving goals. Didactic games help preschoolers learn the properties and characteristics of objects in the process of real practical activities. Children learn to accept the game task set by the teacher (put forward independently) in accordance with the rules of the game, to achieve the desired result; control the achievement of game results in accordance with the game task; explain to peers how to get results; answer the teacher’s questions about the course of the game and the expected result.

The adult encourages children to independently organize board and printed games and the desire to unite in games with peers.
In games with rules, children learn the ability to act in turns, according to a simple algorithm, scheme, model.

In didactic games, children actively use the dictionary to designate spatial, dimensional, color features and relationships between objects in the game and game actions. By the end of the year, children know the names of several games and use them independently.
Contents of didactic games:
Comparison of objects according to various characteristics (size, shape, color, purpose, etc.). Grouping objects based on common characteristics (this is dishes, these are shoes; ribbons of the same length and the same color, etc.).
Composing a whole image from 6–8 parts.
Compiling “rows” of identical objects in descending or ascending order of one or another characteristic (by size, width, height, color intensity, etc.).
Drawing up a simple diagram using various substitutions of real objects (games “Freeze”, “Magic Pictures”, “Invent It Yourself”, “Where Did the Bee Hid?”, etc.).
Sequential thinking, planning your search activities, implementing imaginary images (educational games “Fold the Pattern”, “Puzzles”, “Corners”, “Unicube”, etc.).

Outdoor games. Outdoor games contribute to the formation of basic organization, action in a single rhythm and tempo, the manifestation of dexterity and courage, overcoming obstacles (walking through a limited area), improving basic movements (walking, running, jumping, etc.). The teacher supports manifestations of goodwill towards play partners and the desire of children to participate in common outdoor games.

Which way, from the children's point of view, is fair. It is important for the teacher to remain an active participant in the game, regardless of whether he plays a leading role or remains an ordinary member of the group of players. This not only brings joy to children, but significantly increases their physical activity. Children learn to act in outdoor games according to the plot and rules (up to 3 rules); restrain yourself: start moving after certain words, stop at specified location etc. Preschoolers can already play familiar outdoor games on their own initiative; come up with new outdoor games using imitation (airplanes, a flock of birds, etc.); come up with new games with dynamic toys: balls, hoops, gurneys.

III. Senior preschool age (5–6 years)

The games of older preschoolers are distinguished by a variety of themes and content. This is facilitated by the accumulated gaming experience of children. The gaming environment is planned in such a way that children have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of games: role-playing games, director games, construction games, dramatization games, theatrical games, games with rules. Playground equipment is placed in such a way that children do not interfere with each other. To do this, the teacher rationally uses all the free space in group rooms.

The teacher’s goal is aimed at developing and enriching the themes and content of children’s games; development of independence, initiative in choosing the type of game; creation and implementation of game plans; the ability to coordinate your actions with the actions of your playing partners.

In guiding children's games, the teacher uses mainly indirect methods, promoting the development of play as a form of organizing the life of children's society, the emergence and strengthening of stable children's play associations, the formation of positive interpersonal relationships among children, as well as the cultivation of significant motives for the formation of play associations. Observing children's games, the teacher pays attention to ensuring that very active children do not suppress the initiatives of their comrades, helps timid, shy ones to enter the game, promotes active use rules and norms of behavior in joint activities.

In the context of games, children improve their ability to communicate with each other in the game, express their attitude towards the actions of their peers, justify their actions and deeds, and defend their own opinions; The ability to delicately express disagreement with a peer’s proposals and his actions regarding the distribution of roles, toys, and responsibilities develops.

Role-playing games. Children independently choose a theme for the game, develop the plot based on the experience gained from observations positive aspects surrounding life (family life, kindergarten, people’s work and rest, significant events in social life), as well as knowledge gained in classes, reading literary works, fairy tales, and watching children’s television programs. Older preschoolers show the ability to combine knowledge obtained from different sources and reflect it in a single plot of the game.

The teacher encourages children to first agree on the theme of the game, distribute roles, and organize the initial subject-spatial situation in a play group of 3-4 people.

At the suggestion of the teacher, children can, at the beginning of the game, indicate the approximate content of their role and the content of the roles of their partners; are able, during the game, to perform, if necessary and desired, alternately 2-3 roles in one plot; know the rules of role relationships - subordination, equality, management.

In relationships during the game, the teacher encourages children to comply with learned norms and rules (culture of behavior, friendly, collective relationships). During the organizational period of the game (if necessary and during the course of it), it helps children to highlight the moral meaning of the relationships associated with the role, orients them to reflect in the corresponding game roles such qualities as responsiveness, the desire to help others, to show care, to help them out of trouble, overcoming obstacles, etc. The teacher’s concern is to instill in children responsibility for their behavior in cooperative game, the desire to realize the game plan.

Children are able to select and change toys and objects during the game, and design the environment for the game using a variety of auxiliary materials in accordance with the chosen theme and plot of the game; use toys made by the children themselves; build the buildings necessary for the game (steamboat, pier, bridge, station, railway, semaphore, kindergarten, gazebos, house, street, etc.); use natural materials (sand, clay, water, snow, ice) in games.

The teacher teaches children to add variety to theatrical games (role-playing dramatization, table theater, puppet theater on a screen); use theatrical dolls, homemade toys, attributes, costume elements, and scenery when preparing a performance; directs its activities to improve the artistic and figurative performing skills of children, achieving intonational expressiveness and an emotional state corresponding to the image (sad, cheerful, etc.). Encourages children's desire to show the play-game to the audience (children of their group, kids, parents).

Outdoor games. Games of this type help to foster activity, independence, and initiative in children. Children are expected to be able to strictly follow the rules of games, demonstrate the ability to act quickly, deftly, using accumulated motor skills and abilities. Older preschoolers can independently organize outdoor play and bring it to the end; play games with elements of competition between groups of children. The adult’s attention is directed to developing moral qualities in children: a fair attitude towards playing peers, the ability to support and show mutual assistance.

Exemplary outdoor games: “Hurry up to run”, “Entertainers”, “Dashes”, “Who takes the fewest steps”, “Traps”, “Hit the hoop”, “Ball for the driver”.
Outdoor games are organized in natural conditions using the features of the natural environment in different seasons of the year: in the summer in the park, near the water, in the water; in winter - on the snow, on ice (on sleds, skis, skates). Children should be able to play games independently: ball school, serso, etc., use elements of sports games (badminton, gorodki, basketball, hockey); be able to play Board games: flying caps, football on the table, etc.

Didactic games. During these games, children develop sensory and mental abilities: observation, the ability to examine objects, compare them, notice minor differences in their characteristics (color, shape, size, material), determine changes in the arrangement of objects (front - back, right - left , under - above, in the middle - on the side); develops the ability to recognize an animal, plant, type of transport, etc. from a description (guessing riddles).
The teacher encourages independent organization of didactic games with objects, board and printed material, and verbal didactic games in small subgroups (2-4 people).

Musical and didactic games. Children learn to distinguish between high and low drum sounds (a big drum sounds, a small drum sounds) and accordingly convey this in movements, forming into large and small circles; perform a game song, conveying its rhythm by clapping hands and fists; distinguish the voices of children participating in the game by timbre; perform a song, conveying various dynamic shades (either strengthening or weakening the sound), and perform game actions in accordance with the nature of the sound of the music.

Preschool age is considered the classic age of play. During this period, a special type of children's play emerges and takes on its most developed form, which in psychology and pedagogy is called plot-role play. Role-playing play is an activity in which children take on the labor or social functions of adults and, in specially created playful, imaginary conditions, reproduce (or model) the lives of adults and the relationships between them.

In such a game, all the mental qualities and personality traits of the child are most intensively formed. Gaming activity influences the formation of arbitrariness of all mental processes - from elementary to the most complex. Thus, voluntary behavior, voluntary attention and memory begin to develop in the game. When playing, children concentrate better and remember more than when given direct instructions from an adult. The conscious goal - to concentrate, to remember something, to restrain impulsive movement - is the earliest and easiest to be identified by a child in play.

The game has big influence on the mental development of a preschooler. Acting with substitute objects, the child begins to operate in a conceivable, conventional space. The substitute object becomes a support for thinking. Gradually, play activities are reduced, and the child begins to act internally, mentally. Thus, the game helps the child move on to thinking in images and ideas. In addition, in the game, playing different roles, the child takes on different points of view and begins to see the object from different sides. This contributes to the development of the most important human thinking ability, which allows you to imagine a different view and a different point of view.

Role play is critical to developing imagination. Game actions take place in an imaginary situation; real objects are used as other, imaginary ones; the child takes on the roles of absent characters. This practice of acting in an imaginary space helps children acquire the ability to creatively imagine.

According to the concept of children's play by D.B. Elkonin, role-playing play is an expression of the child’s growing connection with society - a special connection characteristic of preschool age. Role-playing expresses the child’s desire to participate in the life of adults, which cannot be realized directly due to the complexity of the tools and their inaccessibility to the child.

Research by D.B. Elkonin showed that role-play does not arise immediately. Only by the middle of preschool age does it reach a developed form. The prerequisites for the emergence of a role-playing game are:

Separation of actions from the subject and their generalization;

The child’s use of unformed (not having a clearly defined function) objects as substitutes for others;

Separation of one’s actions from the actions of adults and the emergence of personal actions of the child himself;

The child compares his actions with the actions of adults and identifies them;

The child’s reproduction in his actions of a chain of actions of adults, reflecting in the usual sequence the segments of their lives.

Many teachers and psychologists who have studied the play activity of preschoolers have noted that for the emergence and complication of a child’s play activity, guidance from educators is most essential. So N.M. Aksarina, based on her research, came to the conclusion that three conditions are necessary for the game to appear:

1) the presence of various impressions from the surrounding reality;

2) the availability of various toys and educational aids;

3) frequent communication of the child with adults.

The direct influence of adults on the child is decisive.

Play is social by origin and nature. Its occurrence is not associated with the action of some internal, innate, instinctive forces, but with the very specific conditions of a child’s life in society.

With a more thorough analysis of the gaming activity of D.B. Elkonin noted that external conditions, although necessary, are nevertheless in themselves insufficient for the emergence of a role-playing game. This requires a radical change in the relationship between the child and adults, which occurs during the transition from early childhood to preschool age.

Almost all authors who have described role-playing unanimously note that the reality surrounding the child has a decisive influence on it. Children play with what they perceive around them and what is especially attractive to them.

In order for preschool children to play, they must have vivid, emotionally charged ideas about the surrounding reality. At the same time, the entire reality surrounding the child can be conditionally divided into the world of objects and the world of human activity and relationships. Research by N.V. Koroleva showed the special sensitivity of children precisely to the sphere of human activity and relationships.

In a role-playing game, the main difference is plot and content.

The plot should be understood as that sphere of reality that children reflect in their games. The plots of the games are extremely varied. They depend on the era, the class affiliation of the children, their family life, geographical and industrial conditions directly surrounding them. According to D.B. Elkonin, the narrower the sphere of reality that children encounter, the narrower and more monotonous the plots of their games. He proposed dividing all plots of role-playing games in preschool age into three groups:

1) games with stories on everyday topics;

2) games with production plots;

3) games with socio-political plots.

Younger preschoolers recreate relationships in games in a very small number of plots. As a rule, these are games associated with the direct practice of the children themselves. Later, the reconstruction of human relationships becomes the main point of the game. In the game of children of middle preschool age, the actions performed are not repeated endlessly, but replace each other. In this case, actions are performed not for the sake of the actions themselves, but to express a certain attitude towards another person in accordance with the role taken. These relationships can also be played out with a doll that has received a certain role. The instrumental actions performed by a middle-aged preschooler are more condensed than those of younger preschoolers. In story-based games for middle-aged preschoolers, the main content is relationships between people. The detailed transmission of relationships between people in the game teaches the child to obey certain rules. Getting acquainted with the social life of adults through play, children become more and more familiar with the understanding of the social functions of people and the rules of relations between them.

Some plots of children's games are found in both younger and older preschoolers. The development of plots goes from everyday games to games with production plots and, finally, to games with plots of socio-political events. This sequence, according to the scientist, is associated with the expansion of the child’s horizons and his life experience, with his entry into the increasingly deeper content of the lives of adults. The variety of game plots is determined by educational work with children.

Beyond the plot, D.B. Elkonin proposed to distinguish between the content of role-playing games. By the content of the game he understands what is highlighted by the child as the main point of adult activity, reflected in the game.

So, according to research by L.S. Slavina, the main content of the play of younger preschoolers is the performance of certain actions with toys, in which the actions of adults with objects are reproduced.

The game is completely different for older children. The use of the result of an action for another participant in the game (or for a doll replacing him) comes to the fore. Actions are performed by the child not for their own sake, but to achieve through them a certain relationship with another player in accordance with the role he has taken on. The main content is the relationships between people, whose roles the children take on. L.S. Slavina notes that the actions of children are extremely reduced and generalized, sometimes acquiring a conditional character; The older the children are, the more abbreviated and generalized their actions are.

Changes in the content of games can be identified not only by the nature of the actions, but also by how the game begins and what is the main cause of conflicts that arise between children. For younger children, the role is suggested by the object itself in their hands. If a child has a tube in his hands, then he is a “doctor,” if a thermometer, then he is a “nurse,” etc. The main conflicts between children arise over the possession of an object with which an action must be performed. Therefore, very often two drivers are driving at the same time, several doctors are examining the patient, and several mothers are preparing dinner. Hence the frequent change of roles associated with the transition from one subject to another.

For children of middle preschool age, the role is formulated before the game begins. And here the main quarrels arise over roles: who will be who. The relationship of people to each other comes to the fore. The action can be of a generalized nature, and its main content can be transferred to the expression of the attitude towards another person (driver to passengers, mother to daughter, counselor to conductor, etc.).

Finally, for older preschoolers, the main content of the game is obedience to the rules arising from the role taken on. Moreover, children of this age are extremely picky about how their playmates follow the rules. And here they mainly argue about “whether this happens or not” and, in addition, there is clearly criticism of the actions of the participants in the game.

Along with the increase in the variety of plots, the length of games is increasing. Thus, the duration of the game for children three to four years old is only 10-15 minutes, for four-five year olds it reaches 40-50 minutes, and for older preschoolers games can last several hours and even several days.

There are two types of relationships in the game - playful and real. Game relationships reflect relationships in plot and role. Real relationships are relationships between children as partners, comrades doing a common task. They can agree on the plot, the distribution of roles, and discuss questions and misunderstandings that arise during the game. In play activities, certain forms of communication between children arise. The game requires from the child such qualities as initiative, sociability, and the ability to coordinate his actions with the actions of a group of peers in order to establish and maintain communication.

Elements of communication appear very early, when children do not yet know how to build a detailed story game, but play individually - each on his own. Typically, during this period of play development, the child is focused on his own actions and pays little attention to the actions of the other child. However, from time to time, fed up with his own play, the baby begins to look at how another child is playing. Interest in a peer's game leads to attempts to establish certain relationships. The first forms of relationships are manifested in the child’s desire to get closer to another child, to play next to him, in the desire to give up part of the space occupied for his own play, in a timid smile given to another at the moment when the children meet their gaze. Such light contacts do not change the very essence of the game: each child plays on his own, observing “distance discipline” as much as possible.

At the next stage (at three to four years), the child begins to communicate more intensively with his peers. He is actively looking for reasons for joint activities and for establishing relationships. The duration of communication in this case depends on the extent to which the child has mastered the playful use of objects and the ability to create and implement a play plan.

During the period when play consists only of performing the most basic actions with toys (rolling a car by a rope, pouring sand from a bucket), the child’s interaction with a peer is short-term. The content of the game does not yet provide grounds for sustainable communication. At this stage, children can exchange toys and help each other; One can; rush to help another correctly position the overturned car, and the other, correctly understanding his impulse, will kindly accept this service.

With the development of gaming skills and the complication of game plans, children begin to engage in longer-term communication. In playing together, children learn the language of communication, mutual understanding and mutual assistance, and learn to coordinate their actions with the actions of others.

Bringing children together to play together helps to further enrich and complicate the content of games. Each child's experience is limited. He is familiar with a relatively narrow range of actions performed by adults. In the game there is an exchange of experience. Children learn from each other and turn to adults for help. As a result, games are becoming more diverse. The complication of the content of games leads, in turn, not only to an increase in the number of participants in the game, but also to the complication of real relationships, and to the need for clearer coordination of actions.

With the development of the ability to create a detailed plot plan and plan joint activities, the child comes to the need to find a place among the players, establish connections with them, understand the desires of the players and balance their own desires and capabilities with them.

The above allows us to conclude that the central point of any game is the reproduction of the activities of adults and their relationships. This entry into human relationships and mastering them is the essence of the game. This is what determines the great influence that play has on the development of the entire personality of a preschool child, on the development of all aspects of his mental life.

In preschool age, that relatively stable inner world is acquired, which gives grounds for the first time to call the child a personality, although not fully formed, but capable of further development and improvement. This is facilitated by gaming and different kinds productive activities (designing, modeling, drawing, etc.), as well as initial forms of labor and educational activities. Thanks to the game, the child’s personality improves:

1. the motivational-need sphere develops: a hierarchy of motives arises, where social motives become more important for the child than personal ones (a subordination of motives occurs);

2. cognitive and emotional egocentrism is overcome: the child, taking the role of a character, hero, etc., takes into account the characteristics of his behavior, his position. The child needs to coordinate his actions with the actions of the character - his playing partner. This helps to navigate relationships between people, promotes the development of self-awareness and self-esteem in a preschooler;

3. arbitrariness of behavior develops: a role is played, the child strives to bring it closer to the standard. Reproducing typical situations of human relationships in accordance with social patterns. This helps the child to comprehend and take into account the norms and rules of behavior;

4. mental actions develop: a plan of ideas is formed, the child’s abilities and creative capabilities develop.

The development of story-based play in a preschooler makes it possible to recreate in an active, visually effective form an immeasurably wider sphere of reality, far beyond the boundaries of the child’s personal practice. In the game, the preschooler and his partners, with the help of their movements and actions with toys, actively reproduce the work and life of the adults around them, the events of their lives, the relationships between them, etc. From the point of view of D.B. Elkonin, “game is social in its content, in its nature, in its origin, i.e. it arises from the conditions of a child’s life in society.” Social conditioning role-playing game carried out in two ways:

1. sociality of motives;

2. sociality of the structure.

A preschooler cannot really participate in the productive activities of adults, which gives rise to the child’s need to recreate the world of adults in a playful way. The child himself wants to drive a car, cook dinner, and this becomes possible for him thanks to play activities. In the game, an imaginary situation is created, toys are used that copy real objects, and then substitute objects, which, due to their functional characteristics, make it possible to replace real objects. After all, the main thing for a child lies in actions with them, in recreating the relationships of adults; all this introduces the preschooler to social life, giving the opportunity to become, as it were, a participant in it.

The social nature of the structure and modes of existence of gaming activities was first noted by L.S. Vygotsky, who emphasized the indirect role of speech signs in play, their importance for specific human functions - verbal thinking, voluntary regulation of actions, etc. A preschool child, entering a group of peers, already has a certain stock of rules, patterns of behavior, some moral values ​​that have developed in him thanks to the influence of adults and parents. A preschooler imitates close adults, adopting their manners, borrowing from them their assessment of people, events, and things. And all this is transferred to play activities, to communication with peers, and shapes the child’s personal qualities. The content of the game’s plot, the child’s preferences, and the characteristics of his speech allow us to presumably establish the type of communication of the preschooler in the family, intrafamily interests and relationships.

An encouraging attitude towards gaming activities on the part of parents has a great positive impact on the development of the child’s personality. Condemnation of the game, the desire of parents to immediately switch the child to educational activities, gives rise to an intrapersonal conflict in a preschooler. The child develops a feeling of guilt, which can outwardly manifest itself in reactions of fear, low level of aspirations, lethargy, passivity, and contributes to the emergence of a feeling of inferiority. Conflicts between parents or grandparents in the family are reflected in the preschooler’s role-playing games. In conditions of playful and real communication with peers, the child is constantly faced with the need to put into practice the learned norms of behavior and to adapt these norms and rules to a variety of specific situations. In the play activities of children, situations constantly arise that require coordination of actions, the manifestation of a friendly attitude towards play partners, and the ability to abandon personal desires in order to achieve a common goal. In these situations, children do not always find necessary methods behavior. Conflicts often arise between them, when each defends their rights, regardless of the rights of their peers.

The depth and duration of conflicts in preschoolers largely depend on the patterns of family communication they have learned. In a peer group, public opinion and mutual assessment of children gradually develop, which significantly influence the development of the child’s personality. Assessment from a peer group is especially important in preschool age. The child often tries to refrain from actions that cause disapproval from peers and strives to earn their positive attitude. Each child occupies a certain position in the group, which is expressed in how his peers treat him. The degree of popularity a child enjoys depends on many reasons:

His knowledge;

Mental development;

Features of behavior;

Ability to establish contact with other people;

His appearance, etc.

Peers unite in the game, to a greater extent taking into account their own personal relationships and sympathies, however, sometimes an unpopular child ends up in a play group for roles that no one wants to fill.

Instead of an adult, peers become regulators of role-playing games and games with rules in older preschool age. They themselves assign roles, monitor compliance with the rules of the game, fill the plot with appropriate content, etc. At this age, relationships with peers in some cases become more important for the child than relationships with peers. The preschooler strives to establish his best qualities in a group of peers. The actions and relationships that children act out in accordance with the roles they take on allow them to become more familiar with certain motives of behavior, actions, and feelings of adults, but do not yet ensure that children assimilate them.

The game educates children not only through its plot, through what is depicted in it. In the process of real relationships unfolding regarding the game - when discussing the content, distribution of roles, game material, etc. - children learn to actually take into account the interests of a friend, sympathize with him, give in, and contribute to the common cause. As studies by S.N. have shown. Karpova and L.G. Lysyuk, relationships regarding play contribute to the development of moral motives of behavior in children, the emergence of an “internal ethical authority.” The nature of the real relationships that develop between children in connection with play largely depends on the characteristics of the behavior of the “leaders”, on the ways in which they achieve the fulfillment of their demands (by settling, negotiating or resorting to physical measures).

In the studies of L.G. Lysyuk discusses the acquisition of moral norms by preschoolers in various situations:

1) verbally;

2) in real everyday situations;

3) in relationships regarding the game;

4) in plot-role relationships.

Relationships with peers regarding play and role-playing relationships have a significant impact on the development of the child’s personality and contribute to the development of such personal qualities as mutual assistance, responsiveness, etc. Relationships around play are of particular importance for the development of a child’s personality and for their assimilation of elementary moral norms, since it is here that the learned norms and rules of behavior, which form the basis of the moral development of a preschooler, are formed and actually manifested. They develop the ability to communicate in a group of peers.

One of the components of an individually differentiated approach is the creation of conditions for the child to master the position of a subject of play activity (O.V. Solntseva): designing the content of play activity, creating a step-by-step educational technology developing the child’s independence and creativity; designing an object-game environment.

Thus, the peculiarities of the play activity of preschool children is that the game takes on the most developed form, which in psychology and pedagogy is called plot-role, all the mental qualities and personality traits of the child are most intensively formed, has a great influence on the mental development of the preschooler, promotes The fact that the child begins to think in images and ideas is crucial for the development of imagination. Many scientists have studied this problem, including D.B. Elkonin, N.M. Aksarina, N.V. Koroleva, L.S. Vygotsky and others. Almost all authors who described role-playing unanimously note that the reality surrounding the child has a decisive influence on it. Children play with what they perceive around them and what is especially attractive to them; the direct influence of adults (parents, educators) on the child is decisive.

The child learns about the world in all its diversity through those types of activities that the baby finds understandable and close. In this context, the leading position is occupied by the game. That is why the implementation of the goals and objectives of teaching, development and upbringing of children in preschool educational institutions is carried out through game elements. This approach is fixed software requirements Federal State Educational Standard. Let's consider the features of play activities of preschoolers under the conditions of the Federal State Educational Standard.

What is gaming activity according to the Federal State Educational Standard?

One of the tasks of play activity is connection with reality; children must learn to live in modern world

This is interesting. Famous Russian pediatrician, psychologist and philanthropist of the 19th century E.A. Pokrovsky said: “...Let the children play while the game pleases them, attracts them and at the same time brings them enormous benefit!”

The main feature of preschool education is the lack of TARGETED learning, since this does not correspond to the child’s developmental level. Instead, the game comes to the fore, through which the activity approach is implemented. However, in the modern world the emphasis has shifted: from yard games there has been a transition to individual games, and from group games to computer games. Therefore, the task of methodological work in kindergartens is to return play to children without interruption from the present day. It is in this context that the issue of play activities of preschool children should be considered.

Meaning

The game contributes to the child’s self-realization among peers

Properly organized and skillfully directed play allows the child

• develop physically and intellectually;
• develop positive character traits;
• learn to communicate with peers and surrounding adults;
• quickly and easily absorb new knowledge.

The Federal State Educational Standard is based on the diagram of the child’s developmental line: feel - recognize - create. That is, in kindergarten entertainment, learning and creativity must be carried out simultaneously. The game combines all this.

Goals and objectives

The game promotes the development of a child’s speech

An important area of ​​involving children in gaming activities is the development of knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to solve problems related to different areas of life (learning, socialization, that is, relationships with people around them, self-determination, etc.). In addition, gaming activities according to the Federal State Educational Standard:

• develops logical, imaginative, critical thinking;
• develops the skill of building cause-and-effect relationships;
• expands the range of mental operations, creativity, imagination;
• fosters a creative approach to solving assigned problems;
• forces you to take initiative;
• develops various mental functions, including speech;
• promotes physical development.

The systematic solution of such tasks as:

• familiarity with moral and ethical concepts (for example, in the context of events dedicated to patriotic education);
• general physical training;
• development of a “co-creation” strategy in different types gaming activity;
• selection of game material;
• proper organization and conduct of games.

Principles and forms of the game

Children must clearly understand the rules of the game

For the technique to “work”, it must be applied correctly. For this purpose, the Federal State Educational Standard provides the following principles for introducing gaming activities into the work of a preschool institution:

• free involvement in the game (children cannot be forced to play, this can provoke a “reverse loop effect”, and the child will refuse other types of interaction);
• exclusion of activities that violate the norms of public morality (for example, gambling for money or things), or degrading the dignity of those playing;
• lack of demonstrative edification and didacticism (that is, you should not overload the lesson with information);
• children have a clear understanding of the rules of the game;
• exceptionally positive impact on the emotional and intellectual spheres of the participants;
• sufficient time and material and technical base for the game;
• the presence of a play environment for boys and girls;
• timely changes in the form and content of games depending on the age of the children;
• creating conditions for demonstrating independent activity of children (theatrical, intellectual, constructive, motor).
• accessibility of the subject-game environment for all participants.

The form of the game can be:

• individual, where everyone fights for himself;
• group, in which the child feels responsible for his actions.

It is also worth mentioning such a form as a project, which can be individual or group, and also have different time frames for implementation.

Policy documents

• Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated May 17, 1995 No. 61/19–12 “On psychological and pedagogical requirements for games and toys in modern conditions”
• Letter of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated March 15, 2014 No. 03–51–46 in/14–03 Approximate requirements for the maintenance of the developmental environment for preschool children raised in a family.
• Federal Law of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2010 No. 436-FZ “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development”
• Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of October 17, 2013 No. 1155 “On approval of the federal state educational standard for preschool education”
• Resolution of the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation dated May 15, 2013 No. 26" On the approval of SanPin 2.4.1.3049–13 "Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the design, maintenance and organization of the operating mode of preschool educational institutions."

A detailed analysis of these documents allows us to conclude that significant adjustments have been made to the modern legal framework to determine the essence of the education system in a preschool institution in comparison with program documents previous years.

Conditions for the development of gaming activities in the light of the Federal State Educational Standard

The teacher’s creative approach to creating games concerns all aspects: from developing a script to modeling costumes

The implementation of play technology in a preschool institution has a number of features. Among the fundamental features we can highlight

• creative approach of the teacher to work;
• choosing a game that will allow you to solve the problems of learning, development and education at a specific stage of a child’s development;
• taking into account the personal qualities of the players;
• timing.

The games used can be divided into two groups:

• with fixed rules (for example, lotto);
• free games, that is, the rules of the game are hidden (this is convenient, for example, when learning to read - children must help an adult who cannot read learn this skill, etc.).

List of techniques according to the Federal State Educational Standard

The physical development of children is also realized through play.

According to the Federal State Educational Standard, games are divided into:

• leisure (serve as excellent entertainment during pauses between main activities or for uniting children during walks - “Rucheyok”, finger games, etc.);
• mobile (promote physical development - physical education minutes, warm-ups, etc.);
• theatrical (solve the problems of developing expressiveness of speech, intellectual, aesthetic, communicative education, develop creative abilities - staging fairy tales, staging excerpts from books read, etc.);
• computer (with a mandatory training component);
• games with rules (they teach kids to follow the rules, and also show that everyone is equal before the “law” - lotto, dominoes, etc.);
• role-playing games (develop the gaming experience of preschool children, open up new horizons for displaying the world - “Mothers and Daughters”, “Cossacks-Robbers”, “Snow Maiden”, etc.)

Video: Role-playing activities in junior, middle and senior groups

Video: “Journey” for the older group

These types of games are used when working with children of any age, taking into account the level of development of children. So, for example, lotto in the younger group consists of individual pictures of animals that need to be correctly placed on a poster with images of several animals.

Modern types of gaming activities

Game-cultural practice allows, through the modeling of the game space, to realize the set educational goals, for example, to check with the help of the “ship captain” the ability of the “crew” to carry out simple arithmetic operations within 10

As for preschool education today, the set of gaming technologies within the framework of the list of game types designated by the Federal State Educational Standard has been supplemented, which is associated with the practical orientation of education at all levels of interaction with children. Thus, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Korotkova, candidate of psychological sciences, dealing with issues preschool education, identified 2 types of gaming activities:

• game-cultural practice (story play, free play);
• game-pedagogical form (plot-role didactic game, didactic game with rules).

Game educational situation

Famous Russian teacher V.A. Sukhomlinsky said: “A game is a huge bright window through which a life-giving stream of ideas and concepts about the surrounding world flows into the child’s spiritual world.”

Gaming activities can be implemented in two directions: first, children themselves set the rules and come up with the content of the game based on existing attributes (toys or other available equipment), second, the process of learning, development and education is carried out based on gaming technology. In the latter case, the entire organizational aspect remains with the adult. It is about this technique, which is called a game-based learning situation (GTS) and helps to bridge the gap between the leading game activity in this moment

• from educational in the future, and will be discussed further. The IOS is characterized by the following features:
• a simple plot that takes a lot of time;
• specially organized play space;
• the presence of a didactic goal and educational task;

the guiding role of the teacher.

Types of IOS

• Based on the above, we can distinguish several types of gaming educational situations depending on what accompanies the game:
• connection with a literary character (for example, the inclusion in the work of such well-known heroes as Dunno, Parsley, Pinocchio);
• iOS travel (games simulating a trip to the forest, zoo, museum, etc.).

Examples

Video: Physical education lesson “Toy Town”

Video: Plot educational situation on traffic rules in the middle group

Video: Lesson “Journey through mathematics with Masha and the bear”

The essence of social gaming technology

The use of social gaming technology involves working in small groups (most often 6–8 people)

One of the modern forms of implementing gaming activities is socio-game technology. This is an organization of the child’s own actions, in which he does, listens and speaks, that is, the child participates in drawing up the rules, composing the plot of the game. This complex task is what distinguishes this technology from play in the usual sense, where the child most often acts as a “performer.” Moreover, socio-game interaction presupposes the mandatory presence of an “agreement”, rules and communication. In other words, children can even argue, but with the goal of agreeing and finalizing the rules. The authors of the technology E.E. Shuleshko, A.P. Ershova, V.M. Bukatov identified a number of principles for such activities.

• The teacher is an equal partner. He knows how to play interestingly, organizes games, invents them.
• Removing the judicial role from the teacher and transferring it to children predetermines the removal of the fear of mistakes in children.
• Freedom and independence in children’s choice of knowledge, skills and abilities. Freedom does not mean permissiveness. This is the subordination of one's actions to general rules.
• Changing the mise-en-scene, that is, the environment when children can communicate in different parts of the group, trying on different roles (for example, first treasure hunters, and then robbers who guard these values; the role of treasures can be correct answers to arithmetic examples).
• Focus on individual discovery. Children become accomplices of the game, that is, as mentioned above, they can modify or change the rules of the game.
• Overcoming difficulties. Children are not interested in what is simple, and what is difficult is more interesting (so, it is much more fun to train with Luntik on an intricate tongue twister than to repeat the same simple one together with Vupsen and Pupsen).
• Movement and activity.
• Children work in small groups, mostly in groups of sixes, sometimes in groups of fours and threes.

The advantage of this kind of activity is that it defines the baby not as an object of education, but as a subject, that is, a full participant in the process.

Forms

The forms of social gaming activity can be as follows:

• Games with rules that can change depending on the situation (for example, all participants are Dunno, they ask an adult questions on the topic, and next time all the children are Know-Nothings, and in the role of Dunno - a toy with which the kids explain what was just yesterday didn’t know themselves).
• Competition games.
• Dramatization games (that is, staging the plots of fairy tales, events).
• Director's games (when the child himself comes up with a plot for the game, but the toy is not identified with the child).
• Role-playing games (the baby takes on the role of a character, identifies himself with a doll, for example).
• Fairytale therapy (in simple stories, children see themselves and their actions, for example, “Tales about a baby who looks like you,” “Tales from whims,” etc.).
• Techniques aimed at creating a situation of success and comfort (for example, when learning the alphabet, the task could be: help Dunno find the missing letters in the alphabet, hidden in riddles).
• Self-presentation (a story about oneself in the form of alternate answers to questions from an adult presenter, for example, accompanied by the transfer of some kind of “relay object” from one participant to another).

Examples of social gaming activities

All techniques of this technology can be used in different age groups: the form remains unchanged, but the content component can vary depending on the level of preparation of the children.

"Magic wand"(in the form of self-presentation)

The essence of the game: children stand in a circle and receive a “magic wand” (for example, a pointer). The players’ task: passing an object to each other, answer the question posed by an adult. For example, “What is your favorite toy?” Further, the task becomes more complicated: “Why do you like her, name 3 reasons.” Then you can expand the range of questions - from personal to well-known: “Name the most popular toys today.”

"We speak in chorus"(socio-oriented reception)

The essence of the game: children are divided into groups, the teacher asks a question. The children’s task is to answer it in unison. Thanks to the collective answer, even those guys who are not sure of the answer or do not know it will not feel uncomfortable.

"Mysterious Hat"(a game with rules with elements of a social orientation)

The essence of the game: we put questions written on pieces of paper in a hat (if the child cannot read, then the teacher helps him), the kids take turns drawing out questions and answering them. This way you can repeat basic arithmetic operations, traffic rules, etc. in a playful way. Due to the fact that the hat falls into the hands of everyone, each child feels like a leader, that is, a leader.

Video: Socio-game approach in developing communication skills of preschoolers

Computer games

Proper use of a computer in kindergarten can bring undeniable benefits to the child’s intellectual development

Information technologies (in particular, games) in preschool education, along with the generally accepted opinion about the harm to the mental and physical health of children, have a number of undeniable advantages over other gaming technologies. Computer games:

• help to quickly move from visually effective to visually figurative thinking, which is an important stage in the development of logic;
• contribute to the formation of the ability to analyze;
• speed up the process of managing their own external activities (for example, the baby needs to simultaneously perform actions with the mouse and watch the image on the screen), etc.

Thus, computer games allow children to make a much faster transition from the simplest forms of thinking to complex ones.

Examples

The use of this gaming technology depends on the material and technical base of the preschool institution. But if such classes are not conducted in kindergarten, parents should know which computer games recommended by methodologists can be used at home. Anyone can download these games; just enter the name in the search bar.

• "Finding Nemo. Underwater school" (middle group). Goal: get acquainted with the animal world of the planet. Children will be able to learn about the life of animals in the wild, about their habits and habits, and will also be able to learn how a beaver builds its house, fly with a bat in search of food and see the arrangement of an anthill.
• “Fun ABC” (senior group). Goal: consolidation and improvement of the skill of dividing words into syllables, performing sound analysis of words. Kids will be able to break words into parts, create new words, and combine them into simple sentences.
• “Planet of numbers for kids” (younger group). Goal: learn to count to 10, give an idea of ​​simple geometric shapes, teach to compare. The children get acquainted with the circle, square, triangle, and match the shapes by color and size. Learn to count to 10.

How to carry out the correct analysis?

The feasibility of certain gaming technologies is assessed, among other things, by the child’s activity

Monitoring the success of using game techniques in kindergarten is carried out 3 times a year (at the beginning, at the end of the school year, and also in the middle). The entire group of children is assessed, the diagnosis is carried out by the teacher or person involved in a particular activity. This analysis is carried out in 3 aspects:

• organizational component;
• activities of an adult (educator, physical education teacher, music worker);
• child's activities.

Table “Analysis of play activity of preschool children”

Based on the results of filling out the table, you can see those methodological gaps that are indicated in the “no” column. You need to pay special attention to these criteria by changing the form of gaming activity or making improvements to its content.

Play for preschoolers is the leading activity. It is through him that children learn about the world, learn to interact with other people, and get to know themselves. The adult’s task is to diversify this practice with interesting forms of playing games. In this case, it is necessary to focus on the requirements that are put forward for this type of activity by the Federal State Educational Standard and other documents regulating the process of education of preschool children. Properly organized work will ensure high achievements in the training, development and education of future schoolchildren.