Resources of cognitive and research activities for the development of preschoolers

The child learns well what he is interested in on his own initiative and does it himself. This is facilitated by search activity, which is one of the main and natural manifestations of the child’s psyche. Preschoolers think, reason and transform what they have in their arsenal of experience. It is important to create conditions for them so that their experience expands, and new knowledge is passed through and firmly assimilated. The cognitive and research activities of children are rich in such opportunities.

Cognitive and research activity as a natural need of a child

Have you noticed how your child looks with interest at a piece of wood floating in a rain stream or how he is sincerely surprised by the frosty patterns on the winter windows? And numerous questions in the process of watching birds or milk running onto the stove: “Why?”, “Where from?”, “Why?”, “How?”. This behavior of a child is natural and only confirms that he, due to his age, is a researcher. Genetically predetermined search activity creates conditions for the child’s mental development to initially follow the path of self-development.

It should be noted that children are in special conditions: they are bombarded with information every day, and their knowledge is extremely limited.

What is important for a child’s development is not the amount of knowledge transferred to him, but how he appropriates it. This is why the exploratory nature of reflection and action is so important.

The preschooler observes, reasons, and his own discoveries arise. It is this kind of experience that is firmly assimilated by the child, and he subsequently uses it when faced with a familiar situation.

Younger preschoolers show the simplest cognitive activity. By interacting with objects, observing what is happening, asking questions, they assimilate primary information. This is their – and very valuable – way of understanding the world.

Every year the interests of children deepen. Older preschoolers are no longer just interested, but are trying to get to the bottom of the truth. Their activity is aimed at finding a solution, testing experimentally the properties of objects, and unraveling natural phenomena. Actually, the formation of cognitive and research activities is taking place.

The adult’s task is to stimulate the child’s natural search activity and develop his research abilities.

Fabric, its qualities and properties

 To teach to recognize things made of fabric, to determine its qualities (thickness, surface structure, degree of strength, softness) and properties (creases, cuts, tears, gets wet, burns).  Samples of cotton fabric in two or three colors, scissors, alcohol lamp, matches, containers of water, algorithm for describing the properties of the material.  Children play with dolls dressed in cotton dresses. The adult invites the children to think about what the dresses are made of; what color is the fabric; What else do they know about this material? Offers to determine the qualities and properties of fabric. Each child takes a piece of fabric of the color they like, feels it, reveals the surface structure and thickness. He crumples the fabric in his hands (crumples), pulls two opposite edges (stretches); cuts the piece into two parts with scissors (cuts); dips a piece of fabric into a container of water (gets wet); compares changes in fabric in water with wet paper (fabric retains its integrity better than paper). An adult demonstrates how fabric burns and tears under strong tension. Together with the children, he creates an algorithm for describing the properties of the material.

Types of cognitive and research activities in preschool age

A child of preschool age comprehends the world around him only in those ways that are available to him due to limited experience. He can ask questions about the new and incomprehensible, he can reason and even come up with unexpected hypotheses. Can experimentally check what will happen if...

All of the listed methods of children's activity perform a search and research function. Thanks to them, the preschooler discovers a lot of new things, gradually broadens his horizons and forms his own picture of the world.

Asking questions

Children's thoughts usually begin with a question. Asking an adult about what interested or surprised is the simplest and most accessible type of cognitive research activity for a preschooler.

In preschool age, almost all children’s questions are cognitive in nature and are aimed at understanding the essence of phenomena, processes, and patterns. A child may wonder why a cat has soft fur and a hedgehog has sharp spines, why a bicycle doesn’t fall while moving, how light “gets” into a light bulb, etc.

Heuristic questions (leading to discoveries) arise in children because they are faced with a certain problem, intellectual complexity, or practical task. For example, after hearing thunder, a preschooler shoots out questions, trying to understand how and why the roar is formed, where the source of such powerful sounds is located.

When asking questions, the child shows great persistence in finding an answer and demands detailed and reasoned explanations from adults.

Reasoning

For many preschoolers, answers to exciting questions push them to further reasoning. New knowledge must take its place in the child’s perception of the world, and for this there is not enough understanding of how it is connected with everything that the child already knows.

An inquisitive preschooler begins to think based on facts and images already known to him. “Birds fly south, but how will they find their way back? There are no roads in the sky like there are on earth,” the child is puzzled. Next, he builds a chain of inferences and draws the conclusion that the bird leader is guided by some signals.

In preschool age, reasoning is characterized by figurativeness and reliance on facts that are understandable to the child.

Experimentation

Children's experimentation is a type of cognitive research activity that allows one to discover implicit properties, transform objects, and experience objects in a new quality. Children are especially attracted to the fact that they can make tests, test their hypotheses, make as many mistakes as they want and repeat experiments.

Experiments hold children's attention and encourage them to independently search for reasons why the properties of an object or phenomenon appear in this particular way.

While observing the experiment, the child expresses his guesses. The bolder and more actively he voices different assumptions, the faster he gets to the right conclusion.

Methods and means of implementing research activities

The level of development of older preschoolers allows them to express themselves in any of the considered types of cognitive and research activities. Gifted children are especially active in this direction. But every child can be stirred up, a spark of curiosity can be ignited in him and pushed towards a deeper comprehension of the surrounding reality.

There are two main forms of cognitive and research activity:

• The child is the source of activity. He sets a goal himself and strives to achieve it, satisfying his curiosity.
• The research process is organized by an adult, awakening interest and motivating knowledge. A preschooler learns to act.

Each of these forms is aimed at solving a single task: to help the child understand a problematic issue, firmly assimilate new knowledge and gain new experience.

Methods and techniques for organizing research activities of preschoolers vary from conversations to carrying out small projects to obtain a specific result. They are widely used in preschool educational institutions. Also perfect for home use.

Developmental conversations

When it comes to developmental conversations, the dialogue should motivate the child not only to receive ready-made information, but also to the desire to reflect, analyze and draw conclusions.

For example, a preschooler became interested in why hail suddenly fell in the middle of summer. There is no need to rush with explanations. Explain what each hailstone is, why drops of water freeze, and what happened in the atmosphere the day before. The child thinks, builds a logical chain and formulates his assumption. Some correction may be required, but the young researcher will already be able to draw a conclusion.

Or a child has heard a new word and wonders what it means. Let your son or daughter think about it, and only at the end comment and formulate the child’s thought more clearly.

Organization of observations

You can observe with your child living nature (animals, insects, plants), inanimate nature (seasonal changes and natural phenomena) and social life. When organizing observations, it is necessary to determine:

• observation location (park, meadow, pond, urban environment);
• object of observation (plant, animal, inanimate object).

If necessary, prepare and take with you special instruments (magnifying glass, thermometer, etc.) or items (bird food, brushes, etc.).

Summer weather conditions contribute to the cognitive and research activities of preschool children. The organization of observations at this time of year is aimed both at strengthening the child’s health and at creating conditions in which he could prove himself as an inquisitive researcher of the world around him.

You can organize observation at home. For example, growing onions. Game motivation works well: let’s set up a garden bed on the windowsill.

The child, with the help of an adult, pours water into cups, “plants” bulbs in them and places them on the windowsill. Joint observation of the bulbs is carried out for several days. You can keep an “Observation Sheet” and record changes using sketches. When the onion arrows are long enough, you can cut them off and crumble them into your child’s soup. He will be happy to try vitamins from his own garden.

Experiences and Experiments

In order for transformations in the world around them not only to be noticed by the child, but also to become an impetus for the development of his thinking, the preschooler must, while performing the task, be in the position of not a spectator, but a researcher. Therefore, it is so important that adults organize and conduct experiments and experiments together with the child.

The most interesting experiments are experiments with objects. The well-known experiment “Drowning or not drowning” will require simple equipment: a bowl of water, several objects from different materials (a feather, a nail, a plastic ball, a clothespin, a bead, a piece of paper, etc.).

During the experiment, the child must distribute objects according to the criterion “drowning or not drowning”:

1. Sinks immediately;
2. Sinks after getting wet;
3. Doesn't sink.

The preschooler independently checks the “buoyancy” of each object. A preliminary inspection and tactile examination of objects will indicate what qualities of objects affect the result of interaction with water.

Involvement in projects

In modern kindergartens, the method of project activities is widely used. Basically, three types of projects are addressed:

• research (study of certain phenomena);
• creative (creating a creative product);
• normative (joint creation of a set of rules).

The organization of project-based cognitive and research activities allows children to be included in a common cause and create a joint creative product.

You can just as easily organize a project at home for your children or for a child and his friends.

For example, get excited about creating a general drawing on a large sheet of paper. And at the same time, you can jointly prepare unusual, magical paints (based on flour, salt and gouache). It is convenient to apply such paints onto the sheet directly by hand, which is extremely attractive to children.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

Babynina T.N., Burmitskaya N.N., Moroz E.A. MDOU "Combined kindergarten No. 19, Razumnoye village, Belgorod district"

“The best discovery is the one that a child makes himself . Ralph W. Emerson.

The cognitive research activities of children in kindergarten are invaluable for the development of the personality of a preschooler. This type of activity is important and one of the leading ones. It is through exploration that children learn about the world around them and acquire new knowledge. Cognitive research activities are necessary in every age period of a preschooler. In different age groups, according to the principle of using age-appropriate types of children's activities, this can be observation, experimentation, targeted walks, excursions, and various problem situations.

Preschool children are by nature inquisitive explorers of the world around them. “It’s better to test it once, try it, do it yourself ,” practice teachers say.

The work of a teacher, based on the Federal State Educational Standard (FSES), should be aimed at developing cognitive activity and research skills in children. In accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard, kindergarten teachers need to organize situations that provoke the cognitive activity of pupils. One of the forms of such influence is experimental research activities in preschool educational institutions.

In the process of mastering methods of practical interaction with the environment, children transform objects in order to reveal their hidden significant connections with natural phenomena. Knowledge of the surrounding world as a whole is impossible without knowledge of nature. Studying problems to become familiar with natural phenomena is a means of mental, aesthetic education.

Cognitive research activity is not only to facilitate children’s assimilation of specific information about plants, animals, natural phenomena, to instill in them environmental skills and respect for the natural world and the environment, but also allows the child to develop qualitatively. Younger preschoolers, with the help of an adult, and older ones independently go in search of knowledge, are interested in everything new, unknown, ask adults a lot of questions, make guesses, reason, think, look for different ways to solve problem situations, experiment, rejoice and be surprised by their own discoveries.

Psychologists emphasize that for a child’s development, it is not the excess of knowledge that is crucial, but the method of acquiring it, determined by the type of activity in which this knowledge is acquired. Conducting experiments and organizing experimentation is one of the effective ways to educate preschoolers’ ecological culture. Research provides the child with the opportunity to find answers to the questions “how?” and why?" .

One of the general tasks of the kindergarten is to work on developing ideas about cause-and-effect relationships through experimental activities in nature, taking into account the regional component, using innovative programs and methods, as well as modern forms of education.

Research activities are of great interest to children. The practical actions performed by the child develop the cognitive, tentatively research function, creating conditions for revealing the content of a given object, and therefore knowledge about cause-and-effect relationships is formed. This type of activity has a positive effect on the emotional sphere of the child; to develop creative potential, to improve health by increasing the level of physical activity. In the process of cognitive research activities, children have the opportunity to realize their characteristic curiosity, to imagine themselves as a scientist, researcher, discoverer. At the same time, the teacher is not a mentor, but becomes a playing partner in joint activities, and this allows the child to show his own research activity.

In the process of children's experimentation, kids learn: to find and identify a problem, to accept and set a goal, to solve problems, to analyze an object or phenomenon, to identify essential features and connections, to compare various facts, to put forward hypotheses, proposals, to choose the means and materials necessary to carry out this activity, carry out an experiment and draw conclusions. Children experience great delight and surprise from their small and large “discoveries ,” which make them feel proud of the work they have done. In the course of such work, preschoolers are better and faster able to find a way out of difficult situations and cope more easily with the problems that arise.

In the process of research activities, the child gains experience:

1. Physical: learns to control your body and certain organs.
2. Natural history: gets acquainted with the real world around us, with the properties of objects and cause-and-effect relationships operating in the world.
3. Social: remember the individual characteristics of each person.
4. Cognitive: train thought processes, master a variety of mental operations.
5. Linguistic: engage in word creation, discuss the results of the experiment, play word games, that is, experiment with words.
6. Strong-willed: remember how he himself can influence people.
7. Personal: recognize your personal capabilities.
8. Behavioral: model your behavior in various situations.

Children's cognitive activity should be ensured through the use of methods of observation of natural objects and natural phenomena, game modeling and experimentation, problem-game situations, work in nature, and viewing illustrations. It is important that the methods used correspond to the interests of children, their cognitive abilities, and the characteristics of their attitude towards the environment.

The organization of a developmental environment is one of the conditions for solving the problems of research activities in kindergarten. “An experiment or experience is a special type of observation organized in specially created conditions” A.I. Vasilyev, and therefore each kindergarten group is equipped with “mini-laboratories” for experimentation, where children can independently and with the help of an adult reproduce simple and more complex experiments. The laboratory was created to develop children's interest in research activities, where the development of primary natural science concepts, observation, and curiosity occurs.

The laboratory is constantly updated with new materials for experimentation, which are in a place accessible to children.

Depending on the age of the children, the Experimentation Center may contain:

• Various instruments: scales, magnifying glasses, magnets, microscopes, magnifying glasses;
• A variety of vessels made from various materials
• Natural materials: leaves, sand, clay, earth, seeds;
• Nuts, paper clips, screws, nails, wire;
• Medical materials: pipettes, flasks, syringes, measuring spoons, cotton wool, bandage;
• Waste material: plastic, pieces of fabric, leather, fur;
• Flour, salt, soda, candles, lanterns;
• Children's robes, aprons;
• Schemes-algorithms for conducting experiments;
• Journal for recording results, etc.

In the process of cognitive research activities, the teacher encourages children to independently accept and set cognitive tasks, put forward proposals about the causes and results of observed natural phenomena, notice contradictions in judgments, and use different ways to verify proposals; trial and error method, experiments, comparative observations. Teachers take into account children’s preferences for learning about various natural objects, are interested in who or what they would like to learn about, and are attentive to children’s questions. They support preschoolers' interest in nature, observation, experimentation, and studying materials from encyclopedias and magazines. They stimulate the manifestation of children's curiosity, the desire to study natural phenomena more deeply, using the basic methods of cognition.

Thus:

• Experimental activities help make communication with children more trusting and friendly; it encourages them to engage in independent research and active learning.
• Children's experimentation, as a method in pedagogical work, is highly effective and indispensable for the development of preschoolers' research activities, cognitive activity, and increasing the amount of knowledge, skills and abilities.

List of used literature:

1. Dybina O. V. “Classes on familiarization with the outside world in the second junior group of kindergarten” M.: Mozaika - Synthesis, 2007 (methodological manual).
2. Nikolaeva S. N. “Methods of environmental education in kindergarten . – M. 1999.
3. Odintsova L. Experimental activities in preschool educational institutions. Toolkit. – M.: Sfera, 2012.

Development of research skills in preschool children

The development of a child’s research abilities largely depends on the position of adults. After all, children themselves are not able to fully organize their activities and evaluate the results obtained.

Therefore, adults should motivate children to complete interesting tasks, stimulate non-standard and interesting solutions, and help the child evaluate the level of the proposed solutions.

At the same time, it is necessary to provide maximum opportunities for independent action and support the initiative of the preschooler.

Activation of cognitive interest

Despite the fact that children have a natural need for knowledge, their interest and search activity must be stimulated. To do this, you can use tasks to develop the skills of thinking originally, seeing problems, and reasoning from different points of view.

Exercises and tasks for this purpose are varied. Here are just a few of them:

• Write a story on behalf of Kolobok (the hero can be anyone);
• Come up with several answers to heuristic questions (Why do birds sing?);
• Exercises to develop the ability to ask questions (“Ask questions to the funny bunny in the picture to find out about him”);
• Conduct a thought experiment (“What would happen if all people became giants?”);
• Experiments with real objects in order to identify new properties (with water, paints, a ray of light, plastic, fabric);
• Games for the development of thinking (“Sequential pictures”, “Fairy tales” and others).

Encouraging child independence

Research and search activities will bring little benefit to a preschooler if he is only an observer. It is not enough that the child just performs the actions. It is important that he sets goals on his own, what he wants to check, learn, understand. And having identified a goal, he acted in accordance with it.

In order to consistently develop the child’s independence, parents need to adhere to the following rules:

• Create an environment in your home that encourages your child's independence.
• Give us the opportunity to solve small problem situations.
• Maintain interest in the activity.
• Measure your level of activity in joint activities with your child.
• Don't blame yourself for failures. Explore their reasons together.
• Praise your child for success. It is very important!

HUMAN

Cheerful men playing

 Introduce the structure of the human body: torso, legs, arms, feet, fingers, neck, head, ears; face – nose, eyes, eyebrows, mouth; hair.  A set of toys (a naked doll, a fish, any animal, a bird), a “wonderful bag”, a mirror, dummies of human body parts (torso, legs, arms, feet, neck, head). An adult invites the children to play the game “Wonderful Bag”: find a little man (naked doll) in the bag by touch. Children take turns completing the task and explain to the adult how each of them found out that this is a man (he has a torso, two arms, a head, etc.), and why he didn’t choose another toy (it has a tail, wings and etc.), for emotional living and to intensify the examination of the body, you can play the musical game “Where, where are ours...” (name of body parts) and “Measurements”, when children measure themselves and find out who has longer or shorter legs and arms , who is taller). You can also offer the game “Show (do) what I say” (jump on one leg, show your ear, etc.).

The influence of cognitive research activities on the formation of readiness for school

Involving a preschooler in cognitive and research activities gives him a good foundation for his upcoming schooling. This type of activity ensures a strong assimilation of knowledge and develops the desire to learn new things.

The child learns to formulate goals, reason logically, adhere to an algorithm in actions, control steps, and evaluate the results obtained. All of the above permeates educational activities at school.

In addition, search efforts form voluntary attention and influence the development of volitional qualities of a preschooler. The child has to repeat experiments, return to observations in order to find answers to problematic questions.

Thus, a cognitive-exploratory attitude towards the world around us comprehensively develops a preschooler and increases his readiness for learning at school.