Work experience as a kindergarten teacher "Environmental education of preschool children."

Author: Skripnikova Valentina Mikhailovna.
This article may be useful to kindergarten teachers, parents, and additional education teachers.
Explanatory note:
During preschool age, significant changes occur in the child’s cognitive sphere. The imaginative nature of thinking, specific to preschool age, is determined by the fact that the child establishes connections and relationships between objects, primarily on the basis of direct impressions.
Environmental education should begin in preschool childhood; it is at this age that the foundation of ideas about nature is laid and the foundations of environmental consciousness are formed.
Objectives of environmental education
1. Raising in preschool children a respectful attitude towards all objects of nature, regardless of our likes and dislikes.
2. Formation of an emotionally positive attitude towards the world around us.
The purpose of environmental education of children- children obtaining reliable knowledge, understanding, and acquiring the skills of a responsible, friendly, caring attitude towards nature.

The world surrounding a child is, first of all, the World
nature with limitless wealth of phenomena,
with inexhaustible beauty.
Here in nature, eternal
the source of a child's mind.
V. Sukhomlinsky.
Family, as a unit of society, fosters in us the most wonderful qualities: hard work, caring for others, diligence, compassion, empathy.
The world around us is the richest source of knowledge for a child. The little man treats flowers, butterflies, the bright sun and everything he sees around him with care and interest. For adults, when supporting a child’s sincere interest in nature, it is important to remember to cultivate a caring attitude towards it. Adults should instill love for the world around a child from early childhood, from the cradle, through their personal example. From birth, the child loves nature and strives for unity with nature. Children of this age are sensitive and responsive. They empathize, sympathize, and the child develops a style of behavior in nature. (They won’t throw a stone at a cat, won’t leave trash behind, won’t destroy an anthill, won’t pick a flower or leaf unnecessarily).
Children should know that plants and animals, birds are living beings, they breathe, drink water, grow, have offspring, and most importantly, feel pain.

For example, after the appearance of a new leaf, bud, or flower, you can invite students to “photograph” the plant, and then draw the plant from life. Then compare the plant drawn with the plant from the “photo”. Be sure to draw a conclusion about what has changed and what discrepancies there are. Such actions contribute to the development of observation, attentiveness to certain details, and also contribute to the development of sensory education in preschool children.
- demonstration method.
This method involves showing the child natural objects and their images using pictures, photographs, films, and transparencies.
The demonstration method is used to clarify, generalize, and systematize the knowledge of preschool children about objects and phenomena in the surrounding reality.
- storytelling method.
By telling your child about phenomena and objects of the surrounding reality, you enrich the child’s impressions, influence his mind, the child’s imagination, his feelings, his attitude towards objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. The story must have a clearly defined theme, artistic form, be dynamic, be based on facts that are close and interesting to children, and you can give examples or cases from your personal experience.
- reading (listening to children) works of fiction.
This method helps to expand preschoolers' knowledge about objects and phenomena, the formation of artistic tastes, and the emergence of sympathy and empathy.
- conversation.
Conversation is used to generalize and systematize knowledge in preschool children. When talking, a child must know what is being discussed in order to join the dialogue, maintain the conversation, listen and understand the interlocutor, and be able to answer some questions asked during the conversation.
- a game.
The leading activity for preschool children is play, so while playing, the child learns to interact with nature, learn to communicate with birds, animals, plants, learn to interact with objects of inanimate nature.
Games come in different classifications:
- didactic games with environmental content.
The didactic game has certain rules, its own structure and system for assessing children.
There are several types of didactic games: board and printed games, games with objects, word games.
Board and printed games, These are games aimed at developing thought processes (analysis, synthesis, classification, generalization).
Games with objects– these are games with various materials (mosaics, leaves, cones, etc.)
Word games aimed at developing attention, reaction speed and coherent speech.
Very important in the development of environmental education are visits to the zoo, circus, aquarium, and excursions.
On excursions, children get acquainted with plants, animals and their habitats, and this contributes to the formation of primary ideas about the relationships in nature. Excursions contribute to the development of observation skills and interest in nature.
Watching how animals live in the zoo, circus, who takes care of them and how, the child will begin to build
cubes, bricks or other material, cages for animals and birds, populate them with toy animals.
Children not only gain knowledge about the life of animals, their appearance, their habitat, but also learn to look after them and take care of them. They build beautiful, large, comfortable cages, feed them, and wash the cages. They distribute responsibilities, supervise each other’s work (director, watchman, driver, etc.).
By introducing children to animals that live near people, give the child the opportunity to take an active part in caring for the animals (feed, clean the cage), and involve them in creating conditions for them from the cold.