Didactic games for learning motivation
Didactic games are games that are created and adapted specifically for teaching children.
This is a type of game with rules that are specially created by teachers for raising and teaching children.
Didactic games are a rather complex pedagogical phenomenon, consisting of many plans. A game is a gaming method, a form of learning, an independent activity, and a means for personal education.
We study didactic games as teaching methods in two forms: activities and didactic games. During classes, the leading role is taken by the teacher, who tries to increase preschoolers’ interest in classes using game techniques. He can create competitive elements and introduce game situations. The use of different components of gaming activity can be combined with instructions, demonstration, explanations and questions.
Researchers in the field of games highlight its structure: tasks, rules and actions.
The game used for teaching includes a didactic, educational task. During the game, children try to solve the problem in a form that is exciting for them, which can be achieved through certain game actions.
Each didactic game is endowed with a detailed game action. According to a group of teachers, didactic games become games due to the fact that they contain game moments: surprises and expectations, elements of competition and movement, riddles and distribution of roles.
Motivation for completing didactic tasks is the child’s natural desire to play, achieve gaming goals, and win. This is what encourages them to listen and look more carefully, quickly focus on the necessary properties, select objects and group them as required by the game conditions and rules.
Usually teachers confuse the concepts of “game exercise” and “game”. And game exercises are sometimes mistakenly called games by teachers.
But if you use play exercises instead of games, then children's interest can often quickly fade away. N.Ya. Mikhaileno identifies the following components of the game: actions, rules, winnings.
If the activity that the teacher offers for children does not have a competitive component and it is impossible to record championship as a win, then it is just a game exercise. To prevent the game from turning into a gaming exercise, it is necessary to introduce gaming actions with a competitive component into the process.
Formative environment and game methods
According to R.A. Kurashova, we can highlight a subject-based developmental environment, which is one of the conditions for the development of sensory standards in preschoolers.
Today, as the education system improves, as the principles of humanization of the educational process are introduced, great importance is attached to the creation of a formative environment.
The environment, which includes the child's environment, consists of the family, immediate environment and social environment. The environment can both enhance and inhibit a child’s development. But she cannot but influence his development at all.
The developing subject environment is a complex of objects of the material world with which the child interacts. It allows you to model the content of the child’s physical and spiritual appearance.
In order for didactic games to produce results, you need to follow general didactic principles in their organization.
For example, one must adhere to the principle of consistency and systematicity, which is manifested in the fact that the knowledge system should be transmitted to children in a logical sequence, taking into account the cognitive capabilities of students. Another principle is the principle of learning. It involves organizing a process of several steps. It produces more results if you take fewer breaks, stay consistent, and avoid uncontrollable moments.
Based on all this, didactic games should be carried out sequentially from simple to complex.
According to V.N. Avanesova, during classes that are based on the direct influence of adults on the teacher, it is impossible to implement all the goals of sensory education: didactic games still play a large role.
The researcher believes that in some cases games are a specific playful form of conducting classes. They can be organized with all preschoolers during classes. In other cases, games should be used in everyday life, when the child plays independently.
Purpose of sensory education for preschoolers 4-5 years old
Sensory education of children aged 4-5 years is focused on the formation of the foundations of sensory perception of the surrounding reality and the formation of sensory representations of preschoolers. It is important to carry it out precisely during this period because it is sensitive for the development of the sensory side of the personality and the formation of sensory ideas.
Based on this goal, we can identify a number of tasks for sensory education of children 4-5 years old. These include:
- Expanding preschoolers’ understanding of the sensory structure of the world;
- Formation of productive sensory perception skills;
- Improving the sensory development of preschoolers through the active use of all senses;
- Development of skills in differentiating objects based on sensory characteristics;
- Formation of skills for examining objects based on sensory characteristics;
- Development of elementary sensory representations of preschool children.
Achieving these goals is carried out through various methods and areas of educational activity.
Game methods for forming ideas about color
The main focus is on color recognition exercises and games. With their help, a preschooler can become familiar with the generally accepted system of shades and color tones, which are included in the form of transitional phrases.
These games are very important, because children, when perceiving color in the environment, drawing it with paints and pencils, are not able to independently learn to systematize shades and tones.
G.S. Shwaido offers his own model for constructing games for color discrimination and recognition. First, the child must remember colors that are close to each other. Then he must learn to distinguish colors by dark and light shades.
After this, children should learn to distinguish between shades of one color. First, choose two shades. Then several.
To firmly grasp sensory standards, you need to repeat games many times. But repetition needs to be organized in different ways. If you repeat didactic games without changes, this will give children the opportunity to consolidate acquired skills and knowledge during the exercises.
But if you make familiar games a little more complicated, it develops interest in them. Solving new problems brings children a sense of satisfaction and joy, and children are fueled by a desire to be mentally active.
