The role of environmental education in the development of preschool children

Environmental issues become more and more relevant every year. Unreasonable and selfish behavior of a person leads to catastrophic consequences. It is important for us as parents to remember that an adult who harms nature was once a child who was not instilled with the proper love for the world and was not instilled with the importance of caring for natural wealth. Therefore, it is so important not only to remember the environmental education of preschoolers, but also to understand the significance of this work, to be able to structure it correctly in order to raise a humane, compassionate person who understands his creative role.

What does the concept of “ecology” include?

We proceed from the fact that ecology is the science of the interaction of all links in nature and the influence of human activity on it. Then environmental education is, first of all, the formation in a child of a positive perception of the environment as a whole, his conviction that it is necessary to treat nature with care, using its resources wisely.

The concept of environmental education in preschool age includes:

• moral education (instilling a compassionate attitude towards the natural world around us);
• spiritual development (explanation of such concepts as the uniqueness of the ecosystem of our planet, the interconnection of all life on it, the creative role of man);
• nurturing a sense of beauty - understanding the value of the beauty of native nature;
• more intellectual development – ​​the formation in the child’s mind of an integral system of environmental knowledge;
• formation in the child of an ecological worldview and a desire to protect nature and help it.

It is clear that to solve all these problems, the knowledge acquired by a child in a preschool institution will not be enough: the conceptual chain should begin with the family, because it is here that the child draws his first concepts about the structure of the world, the role of man in society, nature, behavioral stereotypes, etc. .

Of course, a child can think, build the first hypotheses, draw conclusions, compare facts, conduct some experiments and gain practical personal experience from about the age of 4 or 5. At the same time, children begin to actively develop an interest in nature, an emotional perception of reality, and an appreciation of reality. attitude towards the actions of others. Therefore, environmental education of preschoolers at this time will be most effective. But this does not mean at all that until this age the baby should remain in an “ecological vacuum.” Children from birth until middle school age learn from the examples of adults. Therefore, it is important that they constantly see correct environmental behavior in front of them and learn to understand and accept the following facts.

• All living beings in nature (and humans too) are interconnected: they all need each other for something and depend on each other.
• Plants and animals are alive, they can also be hurt, and the destruction of at least one species of plants or animals will lead to a disruption in the biological chain.
• You must not litter the environment; garbage should only be thrown into trash bins.
• A person should help nature, not destroy plants, not kill animals, etc.
• Nature is our common home, and what harms it harms humans.

It is important for us, adults, to constantly show children that people must protect natural resources and put a lot of work into preserving the beauty of forests, rivers, animals and plants.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

“A man became a man when he heard the whisper of leaves and the song of a grasshopper, the murmur of a spring stream and the ringing of silver bells in the bottomless summer sky, the rustle of snowflakes and the howling of a blizzard outside the window, the gentle splash of a wave and the solemn silence of the night - he heard, and, holding his breath, listens hundreds and thousands of years of wonderful music of life . V. A. Sukhomlinsky.

Indeed, the natural world is amazing and beautiful, nature is an endless source of emotional states, an unquenchable desire to learn.

At the present stage, the government of the Russian Federation pays great attention to the greening of society: 2013 was declared the Year of Environmental Protection; 2021 is the Year of Ecology and Specially Protected Natural Areas.

Environmental education in kindergarten is an important area of ​​the educational process. It provides great opportunities for the development of not only the cognitive and communicative activities of a preschooler, but also has a huge impact on the spiritual and moral development of children. Environmental education of preschoolers should also be considered, first of all, as moral education, because the basis of a person’s attitude to the natural world around him should be humane feelings, that is, awareness of the value of any manifestation of life, the desire to protect and preserve nature.

The problem of spiritual and moral development is extremely relevant. At the present stage, there is an alienation of children from nature as a source of spirituality and morality, which leads to minimal communication between children and nature. Environmental education should begin from preschool age, where the foundations of children's environmental culture and behavior in nature are laid.

The Concept of Spiritual and Moral Development and Personality Education of a Russian Citizen (authors A. Ya. Danilyuk, A. M. Kondakov, V. A. Tishkov) defines basic national values, which in turn are revealed in a system of moral values, among which is patriotism , citizenship, work and creativity, and, of course, nature and humanity.

Native nature is a powerful source from which a person draws his first knowledge and impressions. It leaves a deep mark on the child’s soul, influencing his feelings with its brightness and diversity.

Children need to be instilled with a love of nature from a very early age. “Love for nature, however, like any love, undoubtedly begins in childhood ,” wrote the Russian writer and journalist Ivan Sergeevich Sokolov-Mikitov.

To protect and truly love nature, you need to know it. Ignorance of nature often causes indifference, and sometimes even cruelty towards all living things.

Kids are delighted at the sight of a flower or a butterfly, and at the same time they can thoughtlessly break a branch, crush an ant running along a path, ruin an anthill, trample a beetle, hit a frog with a stick, without even suspecting that this causes enormous harm to nature. Often children remain deaf to kindness, sympathy, empathy, and cannot always understand the need to protect nature.

How can we teach them to take care and protect nature, all living things that surround us?

Reading fiction helps to cultivate kindness, care, and mercy. Fiction about animals and plants expands the range of ideas about nature, creates the basis for acquiring new knowledge, and fosters love for one’s native land.

We systematically get acquainted with the works of M. Prishvin, K. Paustovsky, V. Bianki, K. Ushinsky, N. Sladkov and the ecological fairy tales of N. Ryzhova, the plots of which are accessible and attractive, teach the child to be observant, to treat with love everything that exists and lives nearby.

I pay special attention to ethical conversations on environmental topics based on stories and fairy tales. “Finch” helped to clearly and interestingly reveal the topics of such conversations. After a conversation on the issues, I brought the children to the conclusion: If you have a living creature, then you must constantly take care of it.

The topic of great conversation was A. Barto’s poem “We Didn’t Notice the Beetle . This work provides an example of a humane attitude towards nature that preschoolers can understand, which can be used as an example to follow. I bring to the attention of children fairy tale stories in which all events are based on real facts of natural life. Their heroes are plants, animals, streams and rivers. For example, the ecological fairy tale “What is the stream whispering about?” , “Why is the titmouse crying?” , “Green Traveler” , “Lopushok. How easy it is to go for a walk after reading an environmental fairy tale and find the hero of the story you just read. “Look, this burdock grew from that same seed. But this is a different story and a completely different fairy tale . And gradually what has become familiar will become not fleeting, but familiar, understandable, pleasant. And the hand will no longer rise without the need to tear it out, break it. Fiction about nature has a deep impact on children's feelings. After reading, you see sympathy, empathy or joy, delight in the children’s eyes.

So that my children are sensitive to beauty, I constantly reinforce ideas about what they see. I explain that a large bouquet looks cumbersome and, in addition, we ruin a lot of flowers.

We foster humane treatment of animals. But which ones? To cats, to birds, frogs, snakes. This is amazing. Well, what about spiders? To insects? To some extent, to them, too. But it is absolutely clear that we have not yet taken education to its logical conclusion, to instilling a caring attitude towards any manifestations of life. To anyone. To a blade of grass, very young, which grew a whole centimeter this morning. To a multi-colored bug that looks like a plastic toy on this blade of grass. To the clumsy caterpillar, gnawing a nettle leaf with such appetite. We ourselves have not fully realized that in nature not only mountain peaks and thousand-year-old oaks are beautiful and unique. Beauty and uniqueness are in every leaf, in every blade of grass, in any living creature, even one that is not very remarkable at first glance.

What should you tell the kids about mosquitoes? Are they harmful or beneficial? They are harmful because they suck blood, interfere with rest, and some even carry malaria. They are useful because mosquito larvae serve as valuable food for fish. It happens that the destruction of mosquitoes in ponds leads to mass death of fry. They are also useful because they pollinate flowers, and in some places in the taiga they are the only pollinators, and therefore are absolutely necessary for the existence of plants there.

What should you tell your children about flies? First of all, flies are different. For example, flower flies or hoverflies. Their larvae destroy aphids. And the larvae of carrion flies, as well as gray meat flies, develop in animal corpses. Carl Linnaeus also said that three flies can eat a dead horse faster than a lion. Therefore, there is no need to kill either the blue ones that shimmer with metal, or the green ones like emerald, or the huge gray ones with a checkerboard pattern on their belly, if they fly into the room. These insects are orderlies. They need to be carefully released outside through a door or window.

Watching children, you are convinced that the joy of communicating with nature makes their lives emotionally richer. So that children in the future, in adulthood, can draw inspiration and strength, love and wisdom from nature, we need to teach them to treat plants and animals with care and sensitivity, and take care of them.

A feature of environmental education is the great importance of a positive example in the behavior of adults. Therefore, I pay considerable attention to working with parents, trying to achieve complete mutual understanding. In my work with parents, I actively use such a form of work as Environmental Action.

For example:

Environmental campaign for collecting waste paper “Save a tree” . The main goal of which is to form a responsible attitude of children and their parents towards the environment.

Unnecessary paper is not garbage, it is secondary raw material called WASTE PAPER. Parents participated in the event with great enthusiasm, bringing old newspapers, magazines, books, cardboard packaging, and advertising printed materials.

Environmental campaign: “Let’s save the green Christmas tree . Its essence lies in the fact that on the eve of a holiday, for example, New Year, children take home leaflets with approximately the following content: “Mom! Don’t cut down the Christmas tree, it’s alive!” or “Do you really want to celebrate the New Year under a dying tree? ”

Environmental campaign: “Let’s feed the birds in winter, they will answer you kindly in summer . Winter is not only a fun time for holidays, but also severe frosts with piercing winds. This is the most difficult time for wintering birds. Birds suffer greatly from the cold.

At this time, natural food is practically unavailable to birds and they often do not survive until spring.

During the event, children learn a lot about birds. So, for example, what types of birds remain to spend the winter in our area. How to distinguish birds by color, what food they prefer. But most importantly, they will understand that it is in our power to help the birds - our smaller brothers, to take care of them, because we are people

I suggested that parents and their children make bird feeders. During our walks, we hung feeders on the site and agreed to replenish them with food supplies daily.

Environmental campaign: “House for the starling” . With the onset of spring, migratory birds return to our region. We are wondering how to attract starlings to our kindergarten site? What can we do about this? Hanging birdhouses is an old folk tradition. Birds living nearby help in the fight against pests and delight us with their singing. To solve this problem, we asked our parents to help us make birdhouses, which we hung in our area and watched the life of the birds.

To expand children's understanding of natural phenomena, I use a variety of games: didactic, active, creative. In them, children accumulate sensory experience and creatively master acquired knowledge.

Among the variety of games for preschoolers, a special place belongs to didactic games, which are diverse in their content, game material, game actions, and cognitive activities.

Didactic games of ecological content help children see the uniqueness of not only a certain living organism, but also the ecosystem, realize the impossibility of violating its integrity, and understand that unreasonable intervention in nature can lead to significant changes both within the ecosystem itself and beyond its borders.

In the process of communicating with nature through play, children will develop emotional responsiveness, the ability and desire to actively preserve and protect nature. Children learn to see living objects in all the diversity of their properties and qualities, features and manifestations; participate in creating the necessary conditions for the normal functioning of living beings within the reach of children; understand the importance of nature conservation and consciously follow the norms of behavior in nature.

Observations on a walk enrich your understanding of the world around you and form a friendly attitude towards nature. Teachers teach children to observe various objects and phenomena; At the same time, it is not necessary to observe only those objects and phenomena that are planned. Observations of animals and natural phenomena can be random and unexpected, so this opportunity should not be missed.

Children have a desire not only to see everything, but also to touch it with their hands: collections of stones, the bark of various trees, to identify clay and sand by touch, etc. In addition, I combine environmental education with aesthetic education. Children try to display their most vivid impressions of natural phenomena and objects in their drawings, applications, and modeling.

Children sculpt study objects (for example, various animals) from plasticine. I also pay a lot of attention to drawing - children transfer their understanding of the knowledge they have acquired, their idea of ​​the world around them onto a sheet of paper, which helps them master the material.

For classes I use visual aids: these are pictures about nature, albums, works of art, collections of stones, plant seeds, a herbarium, and gaming material. You cannot collect collections of butterflies and beetles, as this contradicts the principles of environmental education.

Children's work in nature is of great educational importance for the formation of environmental culture. It broadens children's horizons and creates favorable conditions for solving various problems. Children in practice establish the dependence of the state of plants and animals on the satisfaction of their needs, learn about the role of man in nature.

Independent or joint work with adults in a corner or area of ​​a kindergarten to maintain the necessary conditions for the life of animals and plants allows children to acquire the correct ways and skills of interacting with nature, that is, to join the creative process.

While caring for plants and animals in the process of labor, children realize the dependence of plants on meeting their needs for light, heat, and moisture. They learn that changes in the environment naturally entail changes in the condition of plants. Work becomes more meaningful and purposeful. In the process of work, children gain an understanding of the properties and qualities of plants, their structure, needs, main stages of development, methods of cultivation, seasonal changes in plant life; about animals, their appearance, needs, methods of movement, habits, lifestyle and its seasonal changes. Children experience a feeling of joy and pride when they achieve positive results from their work in nature.

By attracting children to close communication with nature, to knowledge of the world of plants and animals, we, adults, contribute to the active development in children of such qualities as kindness, patience, hard work and mercy.

Nature has a huge influence on the formation of personality, its mental, moral and aesthetic education.

IN AND. Sukhomlinsky drew attention to the fact that, discovering the beautiful around him, invading and marveling at the beautiful, the child, as it were, looks in the mirror and sees his own human beauty. The sooner he feels it and the more subtly he is amazed by it, the higher his self-esteem.

Work on the formation of an ecological culture in preschool children

So, from about 4–5 years old, children are ready for a conscious perception of environmental principles. How can we, as parents, contribute to this?

Children's thinking at this stage still remains objective and visual. Therefore, when building your own methodology of environmental education, it is necessary to include the following important forms of work.

• Trips to nature (to the forest, to a meadow, to a river beach), during which the child will not only observe the life of plants and animals, but will learn to appreciate the beauty of nature, from the example of his parents he will learn to take care of it, and will be able to learn a lot of new things from adults .
• Work on the site (in the vegetable garden, orchard, at the dacha), when a preschooler learns creative activity, can evaluate the result of this work, and forms an understanding of how important it is to take care of the surrounding nature.
• Caring for living pets (cat, dog, parrot, fish), which instills in the child love for our smaller brothers, teaches responsibility towards them and compassion.
• Caring for indoor plants, giving you the opportunity to observe their growth and development, learn the patterns of vegetation and understand your own role in this.
• Family environmental events (clean-up work, planting trees, creating flower beds, hanging feeders), instilling hard work and a caring attitude towards the environment.
• Nature calendars or observation diaries, where the baby, together with his parents, will enter data about changes in nature that occur throughout the year.

At the same time, the role of parents in the formation of a child’s environmental culture comes down not only to the role of mentors who set an example. During such work, adults teach children important things:

• humane interaction with the outside world, environmental activities;
• the ability to analyze observed processes;
• deduce patterns of natural development, draw conclusions;
• make basic predictions about the consequences of certain human actions.

Advice

Arrange environmental exhibitions at home, where the child’s independent work or joint work with parents will be presented (crafts made from natural materials, thematic drawings made by the child personally or together with parents). They can be organized, for example, for such environmental holidays as:

• Spring Day (March 1);
• Earth Day (March 20);
• Vernal Equinox Day (March 20);
• Bird Day (April 1);
• World Sun Day (May 3).

Or for national holidays:

• Ivan Kupala;
• Elijah's day;
• Fedorin's day, etc.

Such exhibitions will increase the child’s interest in environmental issues and help appreciate the beauty of nature. And if you also introduce your child to these holidays and folk beliefs, you will significantly enrich his horizons. This is a very useful educational element both for younger preschoolers (then the emphasis will be on creativity together with you) and for older ones (more independence).

The importance of environmental education in the development of preschoolers. article on the topic

The importance of environmental education in the development of preschoolers.

The relevance of the problem raised lies in the fact that environmental education and upbringing of children is an extremely pressing problem of the present time: only an ecological worldview, the ecological culture of living people can lead the planet and humanity out of the catastrophic state in which they are now.

Environmental education is also significant from the standpoint of a child’s personal development - properly organized, systematically carried out in educational institutions under the guidance of people with an ecological culture, it has an intense impact on his mind, feelings, and will.

The natural world contains great opportunities for the comprehensive development of children. Thoughtful organization of training, walks, and special observations develops their thinking, the ability to see and feel the colorful diversity of natural phenomena, to notice large and small changes in the world around them. Thinking about nature under the influence of an adult, a preschooler enriches his knowledge and feelings, he develops a correct attitude towards living things, a desire to create rather than destroy.

The educational value of nature is difficult to overestimate. Communication with nature has a positive effect on a person, makes him kinder, softer, and awakens better feelings in him. The role of nature is especially great in raising children.

In kindergarten, children are introduced to nature and the changes that occur in it at different times of the year. On the basis of acquired knowledge, such qualities as a realistic understanding of natural phenomena, curiosity, the ability to observe, think logically, and have an aesthetic attitude towards all living things are formed. Love for nature, skills of caring for it, for all living things.

First of all, the nature corner of the kindergarten, where indoor plants and some animals are kept, will help to introduce children to nature and cultivate a love for it.

Children see the inhabitants of this corner of nature every day, which makes the teacher’s work easier: under his guidance, the children systematically observe and care for living beings. In the process of caring for them, children gain an understanding of the diversity of flora and fauna on earth, how plants and animals grow and develop, and what conditions need to be created for them. The teacher teaches children comparative analysis: by comparing animals, he finds similarities and differences between them, common and different in plants, helps to notice interesting features of the appearance and behavior of animals. When examining indoor plants, children draw their attention to the beauty of flowers and leaves, to how plants in a group decorate the room. All this contributes to the formation of a sense of beauty in children.

The basis of the content of children’s activities is the knowledge and skills that they develop in the process of getting to know the environment, in particular nature. Familiarization with nature is one of the main means of comprehensive development of preschool children. It is carried out in the process of formation in their minds of specific knowledge about the phenomena of inanimate and living nature.

Environmental education is a new category that is directly related to the science of ecology and its various branches.

For the development of a child’s thinking and speech, a rich sensory experience is necessary, which he receives from the perception of various objects, the natural world, and social life.

Nature surrounds a child from an early age. This is a source of new knowledge of various natural phenomena.

The special role of nature in the development of logical thinking and coherent speech was emphasized by K.D. Ushinsky. He considered the logic of nature to be the most accessible, visual and useful for a child. It is the direct observation of the surrounding nature that “...will constitute those initial logical exercises of thought on which the logicality, the truth of the word itself depends, and from which logical speech and understanding of grammatical laws will then follow naturally.”

The ability to observe, developed in the process of learning about nature, gives rise to the habit of drawing conclusions, fosters the logic of thought, clarity and beauty of speech - the development of thinking and speech occurs as a single process.

Every acquaintance with nature is a lesson in the development of a child’s mind, creativity, and feelings.

The diversity, brightness, beauty of nature, the clarity of its connections and dependencies ensure that children can understand them and have a significant impact on the improvement of their mental activity. The child learns to find and correctly define in words causal and temporal dependence, sequence, interconnection of objects and natural phenomena, and learns to simply explain what is observed. Children’s ability to compare, compare, and draw conclusions is improved. This creates the prerequisites for the formation of such valuable qualities of coherent speech as reliability, evidence, consistency, and clarity. The child learns to reason, tell, describe.

Sensory perception of the surrounding world underlies the development in children of ideas not only about objects and phenomena, but also about the relationships and interdependencies that exist between them and environmental factors, that is, environmental ideas. Ideas about the characteristics and conditions of life of living organisms (plants, animals, humans), about the relationship of organisms with the environment, about the mutual influence of organisms on each other, about the interaction of humans and nature, form the basis of the science of ecology. In preschool age, children, in the process of purposeful organization of life activities, can master the initial foundations of ideas and elementary concepts of classical ecology, human ecology, social ecology, accessible methods of ecological interaction with nature and people, and obtain value guidelines.

The nature of the planet is a unique value for all humanity: material and spiritual. Material, because together all these components constitute the human environment and the basis of his production activity. Spiritual because it is a means of inspiration and a stimulator of creative activity. Nature, reflected in various works of art, constitutes the values ​​of the man-made world.

The formation of the principles of ecological culture is the formation of a consciously correct attitude directly towards nature itself in all its diversity, towards the people who surround and create it, as well as towards the people who create material or spiritual values ​​based on its wealth. It is also an attitude towards oneself as a part of nature, an understanding of the value of life and health and their dependence on the state of the environment. This is an awareness of your abilities to interact creatively with nature.

The initial elements of ecological culture are formed on the basis of the interaction of children, under the guidance of adults, with the objective-natural world that surrounds them: plants, animals, their habitat, objects made by people from materials of natural origin. Nurturing children's correct attitude towards nature and the ability to carefully handle living beings can be fully implemented in the preschool period only if the system of work in kindergarten is combined with the impact on children in the family.

To create and improve a developmental environment in the family and ensure adequate interaction between adults and children, you can work with parents. Establish contact, mutual understanding and identify the needs of parents in matters of raising children. Having provided parents with information about the relevance of environmental education for the development of the child and his future life, teachers need to introduce parents to the system of work of the preschool institution in this direction. Parents should know how the child’s life and activities are organized during the day. The entire objective and social environment at home and in the family influences the development of the child. These include TV shows for children, keeping indoor plants and pets.

The ability to see and understand the state of another living being is a subtle respect for the child’s soul, depending on interest in a plant or animal, on the degree of development of observation and moral feelings. This is where responsibility for all living things begins. By nurturing children's interest in the mysterious world of plants, children get acquainted with specific types of indoor plants, learn their names and characteristic features. They learn that they are living beings and they have needs for certain living conditions: that all plants need nutritious soil (earth), water, light, heat, air. The child, with the help of an adult, learns that without these conditions they cannot remain alive. A person creates these conditions for them: he plants them in a pot with soil, waters them regularly, sometimes feeds them with fertilizers, puts them in a bright place, and does not allow them to cool. Children develop cognitive interest - they independently examine plants, willingly participate in observations, make sketches, and ask questions. Children develop aesthetic senses, the ability to notice and appreciate the attractive qualities of indoor plants: the beauty of the shape and color of leaves, climbing stems, the beauty of a flowering plant. Children willingly participate in replanting plants, notice and react emotionally to the sprouts, buds, and flowers that appear. The perception of indoor plants as living beings also develops: children may notice their unfavorable condition (withered leaves, pale color, elongated stems, etc.); detect insufficient conditions for their life (dry soil, low light). Children sympathize with the plant: they inform adults about noticed problems, willingly carry out instructions for caring for the plants, and help with their replanting.

If there is a dog or a cat in the family, then children get an idea about the cat, dog, features of appearance and behavior. They learn more about the life of these animals, they understand that the life of these animals is closely connected with humans. Children should know the appearance features of some wild animals, their movement, habits, what and how they eat, where they live, whether they bring benefit or harm to humans; gain an understanding of keeping and feeding domestic animals. Of course, the correct treatment of a child with an animal in itself will not solve all the problems of upbringing. But there is no doubt that communication with living nature plays an important role in the development of a little person’s personality.

In order for the development of a child’s thinking when becoming acquainted with nature to reach a possibly higher level, the teacher’s purposeful guidance of this process is necessary. The teacher must be able to correctly select educational material and think through the methods and techniques with which he can best convey its content. The beauty and diversity of nature at any time of the year, the changes within each of them directly affect the emotional state of children, make them want to observe, ask, reason, and tell. Observing bright, colorful phenomena (leaf fall, snowfall, blizzard, thunderstorm), children want to understand them, ask questions and gradually come to understand them, they can explain why birds fly away in the fall, why puddles are frozen today, why the snow is melting, etc. . This creates favorable conditions for the development of logical thinking and speech. During his stay in kindergarten, the child learns to notice and highlight the characteristic features of the season, establish the simplest connections and dependencies between objects and phenomena, and acquire fairly systematic knowledge about the life of animals and plants.

With observations, excursions, and targeted walks, the teacher associates other activities that deepen and systematize knowledge, requiring their application in the child’s active mental activity (conversations, storytelling, didactic games). The teacher should strive not only and not so much for the children to have a certain number of ideas, but for these ideas to be deep and complete enough, and for the children to be able to intelligently apply them in various activities. This is achieved by organizing the pedagogical process in such a way that classes in which children, using their sensory experience, tell, explain, answer questions, reason, are combined with a variety of practical activities of children in everyday life.

For the development of a child’s thinking and speech, a rich sensory experience is necessary, which he receives from the perception of various objects, the natural world, and social life. Environmental education is a new category that is directly related to the science of ecology and its various branches. Every acquaintance with nature is a lesson in the development of a child’s mind, creativity, and feelings.

The initial elements of ecological culture are formed on the basis of the interaction of children, under the guidance of adults, with the objective and natural world that surrounds them; plants, animals, their habitat, objects made by people from materials of natural origin. In order for the development of a child’s thinking when becoming acquainted with nature to reach the highest possible level, the teacher’s purposeful guidance of this process is necessary.

What does this look like in practice?

Behind all these seemingly sophisticated concepts lies a daily work that is invisible to the child. The peculiarities of the formation of thinking, as we remember, at this age are expressed by objectivity and clarity. Therefore, when going for a walk or going into nature, parents ask the child to evaluate what changes in nature have occurred recently (flowers have bloomed, dandelions have turned grey, chicks are chirping in the trees, it has become slushy, birds have flown away, snow has fallen, etc. ).

Working in the garden or vegetable garden, the child gains knowledge about what period of the year what work should be done in order for flowers to bloom, fruits and vegetables to ripen. At the same time, you can explain to him why butterflies flying around, beetles, ants, birds are needed, what their benefits and relationships are. Tell them that they all have their own home, their parents have kids that they take care of and are very worried when something happens to them - just like people.

By their example, adults show a creative attitude towards nature (water, feed, loosen), explain that squashing bugs, catching butterflies, breaking branches just like that is inhumane (and they themselves do not do this). At the same time, you can touch the grass, smell the flowers, enjoy the singing of birds, observe the changes that occur every day (this is where the calendar comes in handy), and draw conclusions about the laws of nature.

During family environmental events, children will learn what trees are for, why it is so important to take care of them, why one should not litter the environment with waste, and how important it is to feed the birds in the garden, yard, and park in winter.

It’s good if the child starts asking a lot of questions about this in order to expand the range of existing knowledge and systematize the information received.

Advice

If your baby doesn’t bombard you with “why” questions, ask him yourself. Provoke your child to think, compare, and draw conclusions. (Why do you think the sunflower closed its cap? Why is the berry in the sun already red, but under the leaf not yet? What will happen if bees don’t fly into our garden? Why do trees shed their leaves?). Find answers together. This is a good tool not only for environmental education, but also for the development of preschoolers’ speech.

When a child takes care of an indoor flower or animal, adults also teach him to create, preserve, and help. Their stories, accompanied by visual, lively pictures, are not perceived by the child as teaching. This is a natural process. The formation of environmental consciousness in preschool childhood should take place unnoticed.

The essence and content of environmental education for preschool children

Environmental education is the acquisition by an individual of environmental knowledge, skills and abilities.

Environmental education is the assimilation by an individual not only of environmental knowledge, but also of special environmental ethics and their transition into a life position, and therefore it includes intellectual and moral aspects.

Ecological culture is knowledge of the basic laws of nature; awareness of the need to take them into account and be guided by them in individual and collective activities; the desire for optimality in personal and industrial use of natural resources; developing a sense of responsible attitude towards nature, the environment around the individual, and people’s health.

This concept includes the intellectual, aesthetic, ethical, activity-volitional aspect of an individual’s life, as well as his practical everyday and professional activities. Ecological consciousness is a set of views, theories, concepts and social emotions that reflect the problems of the relationship between society and the natural environment. Ecological thinking is a mental act for solving a specific environmental problem. Ecological thinking requires environmental knowledge, which is applied in practice to overcome any problematic environmental situation. 3 As a result of environmental education and upbringing, children develop environmental thinking and environmental consciousness, and lay the foundations of an environmental culture.

Environmental education of preschool children is a continuous process of training, education and personal development, aimed at developing a system of scientific and practical knowledge and skills that ensure the child’s responsible attitude towards the natural environment and health. The continuity of environmental education of preschoolers can be traced in the tasks of their environmental education, arising from its main goal, which is to educate children in the initial forms of ecological culture, their understanding of elementary relationships in nature, and the development of initial practical skills of humanely creative and emotional-sensory interaction with natural objects of the immediate environment.

S.N. Nikolaeva considers environmental education as a process of introducing children to nature, which is based on an ecological approach, i.e. basic environmental ideas and concepts. But when organizing environmental education for preschool children, it is necessary to adapt environmental concepts for preschool age. Environmental education of preschool children is carried out on the basis of content that includes leading ideas and concepts of theoretical ecology. Ecology as a science studies the relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.

There are three sections of bioecology that consider these relationships: - autecology - considers the relationship of an individual organism with its environment; — demecology – examines the relationships between populations of different species of animals and plants and their habitat; 4 - synecology - examines the relationships between communities of living organisms and the environment where they live together. These sections of ecology can be the basis of environmental education for preschool children, taking into account their age, mental and personal developmental characteristics. The main thing is that all the material for the implementation of environmental education for preschoolers is visual and can be included in the practical activities of children. The section of autecology has the greatest opportunities for environmental education, since within it preschoolers are surrounded by specific, individual living organisms, for example, indoor plants and outdoor plants (in a kindergarten area, near the house, etc.), domestic and ornamental animals , insects, birds. All of them are available to the child for direct perception and awareness of their interaction with the environment. Within this section, preschoolers become familiar with the relationships between a living organism and its environment: any living organism has needs that cannot be satisfied through its internal resources, but are satisfied through environmental factors (needs for nutrition, water, oxygen). Another important concept in the autecology section for the environmental education of preschool children is the morphofunctional adaptation (adaptation) of the organism to its environment. This concept deciphers the previous one, revealing the mechanisms of the relationship of living organisms with their environment. Since the external morphological (related to the structure) features of animals and plants are accessible to the perception of preschoolers, they easily acquire knowledge about fitness, shown in specific examples. The concept of the relationship between a living organism and its environment should be concretized for preschoolers with the concept of habitat. For example, a teacher discusses with preschoolers what is needed for the life of an animal or plant (substrate, air, water, food, a certain temperature, etc.), what objects and materials with certain properties surround them. Through these concepts, preschoolers comprehend the main ecological idea that any living organism, with its needs and the need to satisfy them, is connected with its environment through morphofunctional adaptability, i.e. adaptation to specific living conditions. Concepts from the section of demecology are not used in organizing environmental education for preschool children, since it is impossible to visually monitor the life of any population, and children can only gain verbal knowledge about it if they have well-developed verbal thinking. Therefore, environmental education of preschool children may not include knowledge from the demecology section. The section of synecology in the environmental education of preschool children, which examines the life of animals and plants in the community, should be used adapted to the level of cognitive capabilities of preschool age. The main concept of synecology is an ecosystem - a community of living beings and their habitat, united into a single functional whole, arising on the basis of interdependence and cause-and-effect relationships between individual environmental components.

S.N. Nikolaeva gives three levels of ecosystems: microecosystem (rotten stump), mesoecosystem (forest, meadow, pond), macroecosystem (continent, ocean). Environmental education of preschoolers can be carried out within the framework of this section, since, for example, when walking with adults in the forest, meadow, or park, preschoolers, under their guidance, can learn the main inhabitants of these ecosystems and their relationships with each other and with the environment. Also, within the framework of this section of ecology, preschoolers can learn the concept of food chains - food relationships between representatives of the ecosystem. In each natural community there is a biological cycle (of energy and substances) through food chains. Preschoolers can learn in general terms the links of the food chain (using the example of a forest): a complex of factors of inanimate nature (climate, soil, etc.) determines the composition of trees and other plants that serve as food for various herbivores (caterpillars, beetles, birds, rodents, ungulates). Herbivorous forest inhabitants serve as food for small and large predators. The last link in the chain is organisms (bacteria, fungi) that convert all organic residues (fallen leaves, animal corpses) into inorganic substances (minerals) that enter the soil and are absorbed by plants. In environmental education of preschool children S.N. Nikolaeva proposes the identification of a special ecological concept of human interaction with nature, through which any human impact on nature, on ecosystems as a whole and on their individual links is demonstrated. For example: the destruction of wolves (reducing the predator link in the food chain of a forest ecosystem to a minimum) leads to a sharp increase in the number of herbivorous animals, as a result of which many plants are destroyed and, consequently, the entire ecosystem is disrupted. In-depth knowledge of the ecosystem is available only to specialists, and only visible, easily detectable phenomena are presented to the attention of preschoolers as part of their environmental education. The teacher can show preschoolers the connection between 2 and 4 links of biogeocenosis. Observations on walks, in the forest, in the park, in the meadow, followed by visual modeling and discussion, enable preschoolers to understand the idea of ​​a “common home,” by which the author means a community of plants and animals living together in the same territory, under the same conditions, interconnected with each other. The system of environmental education for preschool children consists of blocks (subsystems) covering all aspects of the environmental and pedagogical process in kindergarten: - content of environmental education; 7 - ways to implement the content of environmental education (methods and technologies); — organization of environmental education; — management of the process of environmental education.

Environmental education for preschool children includes such components as various types of environmental activities; greening various types of children's activities; environmental education of parents; training and retraining of teaching staff; greening of the developing subject environment; environmental assessment; coordination of work with other institutions, primarily with the school. At the same time, in the environmental education of preschoolers, its specific content for children of each age stage should be determined, and the need for its environmental focus should be identified. Thus, environmental education of preschool children is aimed at instilling the initial forms of ecological culture, creating conditions for them to understand elementary relationships in nature, and developing their initial practical skills in humane, creative and emotional-sensory interaction with natural objects of the immediate environment. The content is based on bioecological concepts, adapted to the level of cognitive abilities of preschoolers. A didactic system of knowledge about nature, built on various aspects of the relationship between plants, animals, and humans with the external environment and being ecological in its essence, constitutes an essential characteristic of the environmental education of preschool children. Types of activities of preschool children during direct educational activities in the environmental education system

Knowledge about inanimate nature. During preschool age, children develop knowledge about the change of day and night, about typical weather phenomena characteristic of the local region: the presence of warm and cold days, cloudy and sunny weather, typical atmospheric phenomena - rain, snowfall, wind, frost, frost, thunderstorm etc. Preschoolers learn to recognize the state of the weather and define it with the appropriate term-word. Gradually, children begin to correlate the weather conditions with one time or another of the year and establish the reasons for seasonal changes.

Children develop ideas about the aggregate state of water and its dependence on air temperature: liquid water can be solid (ice, snow, frost); in frosty weather, the snow crumbles, creaks underfoot - it is impossible to sculpt anything from it; When warm, it begins to melt, become moist, and plastic—you can sculpt various shapes from it.

In kindergarten, pupils are introduced to such objects of inanimate nature as sand and clay. Children love to play with these natural materials. However, for the development of gaming activity, it is important to have a clear understanding of their properties. Dry sand flows, water passes through it freely, and if it is moistened, it becomes plastic, and then you can build and sculpt from it. Clay does not allow water to pass through, dry clay crumbles, but wet clay can take on any shape.

Children get acquainted with the soil, its cultivation, and preparation for growing plants. The children also form ideas about some cosmic bodies: the Moon, stars, the Sun. Children learn that the Sun is the source of light and heat on Earth. The system of knowledge about inanimate nature underlies the understanding of the relationships between living and inanimate nature. Knowledge about plants. In preschool age, it is necessary to teach children to distinguish and name the most typical trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that are often found in a given area. The teacher selects the plants of the local region that bloom most brightly at different times of the year and shows them to the children. In the garden, he suggests observing the growth and development of vegetable crops, and in the flower garden - admiring ornamental plants blooming in different periods - from spring to autumn. When visiting the field with children, the teacher organizes observations of the cultivation of grain crops. In the forest you can show the children trees and shrubs, berries and mushrooms. And in the meadow - introduce them to flowering herbaceous plants. Kindergarten students are also introduced to indoor plants, taught to recognize, distinguish and name the brightest and most common of them.

In preschool age, children have access to knowledge about the needs of plants: for life, growth and development, plants need light, warmth, moisture, and soil nutrition. Children learn to distinguish parts of plants (leaf, stem, root, flower, bud, seed, fruit), learn about the functions of some of them, for example, the root takes moisture and nutrients from the ground. Children are introduced to various ways to care for indoor plants, as well as plants in the garden and flower garden. The children learn that all plants need to be watered, cleaned of dust, fed, weeded, and in addition, they need to loosen the soil for them. They develop knowledge about where plants grow (in a vegetable garden, flower garden, park, meadow, forest).

During preschool age, children form ideas about changes in the state of plants in different seasons: awakening, rapid growth and development in spring and summer, ripening of fruits and seeds in summer and autumn, dormancy in winter. It is necessary to ensure that children understand the essence of the state of the trees, shrubs, and grasses known to them in a given season and can explain the reasons for this state. It is very important to give students basic knowledge about plant protection. Knowledge about animals. Preschool children are introduced to the most common representatives of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians and insects.

They are told about domestic animals and wild animals of their native land. Gradually, children learn about the lives of the most typical animals in other zones. The teacher introduces them to birds - wintering and migratory, living near people (it’s good if they can be observed all year round) - and, if possible, teaches the children how to care for domestic birds or those kept in a corner of nature. Preschoolers develop ideas about reptiles and amphibians. Knowledge about fish and their habits is well formed in the process of observing and caring for aquarium fish. By observing and caring for animals, children gain knowledge about their appearance, behavior, adaptation to environmental conditions, including seasonal changes in nature.

Knowledge about the work of adults in nature. The teacher tells children about methods of growing plants and caring for animals, about nature conservation and its use by humans. The children will learn about the conditions necessary for the growth and development of plants, about methods of soil cultivation, about how sowing, planting, weeding, fertilizing, etc. of grain, vegetable and other crops are carried out.

In rural kindergartens, children develop knowledge about caring for pets. Visiting collective and state farms, children observe feeding animals, cleaning premises, grazing livestock, and preparing feed.

Preschoolers will learn about some ways to protect nature: feeding animals in the cold season, attracting birds by constructing feeders and nesting areas. Children have access to knowledge about rare animals and plants of their region, protected by the state.

In conjunction with the accumulation of knowledge about the work of adults, the formation of labor skills and abilities in children occurs. Preschoolers learn to care for plants and animals in a corner of nature, on the site. Knowledge about seasonal changes in nature. At preschool age, the following knowledge about changes in nature is available: each season has its own length of day and night, a certain type of weather, air temperature, typical precipitation; The characteristics of inanimate natural phenomena determine the state of the plant world and the way of life of animals in a given season: in winter, plants are at rest, in spring, as the length of the day and air temperature increase, favorable conditions are created for the growth and development of plants - the period of active growing season begins. The most favorable conditions for plant life are created in the summer: the days are long, the air temperature rises, and heavy rainfall occurs. In autumn, the length of the day gradually shortens, the air temperature drops, and plant life freezes: they prepare for a state of dormancy.

Animal life also depends to a large extent on changes in nature. Many animals adapt to the winter cold: birds and animals are molting in autumn; some of them prepare food and change shelter. Changes in the life of plants lead to changes in the life of animals: insects disappear, then migratory birds fly away. These general patterns can be learned by children provided that during preschool age they develop specific ideas about each season (length of day, air temperature, typical precipitation, state of plants, lifestyle of animals, work of adults, changes in the lives of children themselves in one season or another). The children should know the sequence of seasons.

All this knowledge is gradually acquired by children by the end of preschool age.

Formation of a careful and caring attitude towards nature. Love for nature can be cultivated only on the basis of knowledge, as we have already noted, about plants and animals, their living conditions, basic needs, as well as skills and abilities to care for plants and animals. Its aesthetic perception also contributes to the formation of a caring attitude towards nature. In addition, children of all age groups need to develop a cognitive attitude towards nature and a desire to learn as much as possible about it.

Objectives and content of knowledge about. nature, children's skills and abilities expand and become more complex from one age group to another. At each age level, what has been achieved is improved.

Children in the first and second junior groups begin to systematically introduce children to nature. At this age, it is important that children accumulate knowledge, that is, specific ideas about individual objects of nature: about natural material (sand, water, snow, ice) and its properties, about the structure of plants (stem, leaf, flower) and Their needs for moisture, the appearance of animals (fish, birds, mammals) and their methods of movement, nutrition. Children are introduced to the babies of some animals: a kitten, a puppy, rabbits, chickens. They are given the first knowledge of the distinctive features of the seasons.

Younger preschoolers should understand some connections between natural phenomena: the wind blows - the trees sway, the sun shines - it becomes warmer. The teacher teaches children to observe objects and natural phenomena. In this case, children are given an observation task and a plan to follow. As the observation progresses, the teacher teaches children survey actions. It is very important to teach children to talk about the results of observations. The teacher’s task is to form in children an emotionally positive, caring attitude towards nature (the ability to rejoice at the sight of a flower, bird, or sun).

In the middle group, children’s ideas about the properties and qualities of inanimate objects expand and become more specific (for example, water is a transparent liquid that flows; some objects float in water, others sink; snow and water change their properties depending on air temperature).

Children develop the idea that plants need warmth and moisture, and animals cannot live without a variety of food, water, and a warm home.

Children also learn general concepts, such as: trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, garden and flower garden plants, vegetables, fruits, domestic and wild animals.

Pupils in the middle group continue to learn to observe natural objects. This activity is more complicated than in previous groups. Children are taught to accept the task of observation, they master investigative actions, try to compare, talk coherently about what they observe, and draw conclusions.

As in early preschool age, in the middle group children continue to develop a love for animals and plants, but now they must show it in practice - by caring for their pets in a corner of nature. In the older group, the main task becomes to develop in children knowledge about the connections and relationships that exist in nature: about the needs of plants and animals depending on living conditions and condition, about the connections between certain organs and their functions.

Children will learn about the stages of plant growth and development, about seasonal changes in nature and their causes, and about a certain sequence of seasonal changes. In older preschool age, children's knowledge is systematized: connections are established between the needs of plants, animals and human labor aimed at satisfying these needs; between the organs of animals, their functions and habitat (a fish has fins, it swims in water; a bird has wings and legs, it flies in the air, walks on the ground, and jumps).

Systematization of knowledge about the seasons occurs on the basis of establishing temporal (what happens after what) and cause-and-effect (what causes certain phenomena) connections. It is important to develop in children the ability to observe changes in natural phenomena, cultivate a sense of love for all living things, and teach some simple ways to protect nature. In the preparatory group for school, the main task is to clarify and expand knowledge about the regular changes in inanimate natural phenomena, their further systematization and generalization. It is necessary to form ideas about the change of seasons, about the increase (or decrease) in the length of day and night, about natural changes in air temperature, and the nature of precipitation.

Children develop clear ideas that every animal and plant is adapted to a specific environment. Preschoolers acquire knowledge about seasonal changes in the life of plants and animals, establishing connections between their needs and the degree of their satisfaction at different times of the year.

The generalization and systematization of knowledge about the growth and development of plants and animals, about their main groups (based on the nature of their adaptation to the conditions of the environment and the territory they occupy - forest, meadow, pond, field, etc.) continues. Knowledge about seasonal changes in nature is generalized based on a deeper understanding of temporal and causal dependencies. Knowledge about the work of adults in nature is systematized on the basis of an understanding of its necessity to meet the needs of plants and animals.

Increasing the complexity of knowledge requires improving the mental activity of children. They are taught to set the task of observation, to plan it in an elementary way, and to use different methods of observation. The first skills of search activity are formed: the ability to analyze a situation, accept or set a simple task, make an assumption, compare accumulated facts, and draw conclusions.

In the process of work, children develop the ability to see the need for this or that work, plan its sequence, and interact with peers. The acquired knowledge and skills contribute to the formation of a negative attitude towards the manifestation of negligence or cruelty in contact with nature, and evoke a desire to protect it.

Thus, by the end of preschool age, children acquire an elementary system of knowledge about nature, which contributes to the development of mental activity and the formation of a stable positive attitude towards nature.

The best means of education is play

This is true. Gaming activities develop, educate, teach. At the same time, it is fun, interesting, without coercion. So the development of a child through didactic games is one of the most effective means of teaching environmental (and any other) literacy.

The game can be played both during walks and outside.

In the first case, a preschooler can study the appearance and properties of earth, water, clay, sand, ice, and snow. For example, you can offer your child:

• play snowballs;
• To make a snowman;
• hold the ice in your hands, breathe on it;
• make a sun or a tower out of ice floes;
• make Easter cakes from sand;
• compare clay and earth by touch;
• make bricks from clay;
• pass water mixed with clay through a layer of sand;
• compare how sand and clay behave in water, etc.

In the second case, you can arrange a family game at home, inviting friends to visit. These could be, for example, games in the form of lotto:

• What grows where?
• Who lives where?
• Who eats what?

In this case, you need to choose among the lotto cards those that correspond to the environment depicted on each card.

Games in the form of quizzes:

• find by description (you need to find a picture that matches the description of a bird, animal, season);
• recognize and name (recognize an animal or bird by sounds, tracks);
• when does this happen (determine the time of year, natural phenomenon from the description).

There are many educational games on ecology. You can throw a ball to a child, naming a general class (for example, pets), and in response the child, having caught the ball, must give an example. You can arrange a competition to see who can best draw what is described on the card in text format. Or divide the children into 2 groups and ask them to unite in such a way that the upper parts of the plants in the pictures of some coincide with the lower parts of the pictures of others (tops and roots). You can ask kids to imitate the movements of the birds or animals shown in the picture. Or ask them to remove an extra link in some chain of images...

Reading is the best learning

Preschool age is the time when reading books evokes the most vivid emotional response in a child, makes you empathize and think about what you read. The conclusions drawn after reading the book remain in the child’s memory for a long time.

Literature on environmental education is, first of all, the works of V. Bianchi. In the form of entertaining stories or fairy tales, they help the child understand complex natural phenomena, the patterns of the natural world, talk about the interaction of the organism with the environment, and the forms of its adaptation to its habitat.

You can also tell a preschooler about the beauty and diversity of native nature using the examples of the works of M. Prishvin, F. Tyutchev, A. Pushkin, A. Fet, K. Ushinsky, N. Nekrasov, L. Tolstoy, N. Sladkov and others.

Reading children's encyclopedias devoted to natural areas, climate, animals, and plants will also be useful in terms of improving environmental education. Bright pictures in them contribute to more effective memorization of accurate information. But fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, which can also be classified as “ecological”, carry figurative information, which is also useful.

Raising a child begins in the family. The harmonious development of children in the future depends on how correct it is. In environmental terms, too.