How to choose suitable materials for children's mathematical operation

How to choose materials suitable for children's mathematical operation in kindergarten mathematics education and whether the materials provided by teachers are suitable for children are directly related to children's interest in participating in activities, the results of exploring and operating materials and the realization of educational goals. So, how to choose and design materials suitable for children's mathematical operation activities? After several years of research and practice, we got the following insights:

First of all, the choice of teaching materials should reflect the educational objectives and have a purpose.

The structural characteristics of the material itself and the activities defined by these characteristics often determine what kind of learning experience children can get and what aspects of development they can get. Therefore, materials should contain educational objectives, which is beneficial for young children to gain key experiences.

1. From the perspective of educational value, integrate educational intentions and requirements into teaching materials, fully tap the potential of teaching materials, and make them serve the educational value and exert the greatest effect. For example, according to the materials provided by small class classification teaching, "graphic baby looking for mother" and "sticks of different colors looking for home". Digital chess and digital solitaire toys were put in the middle class "Count within 10 and recognize within 10", and jigsaw puzzles and five puzzles were put in the middle class "Guide children to explore and perceive the transformation relationship between geometric figures". Beads of different colors, shapes and sizes are placed according to the goal of "sorting according to a simple law". Playing cards according to "try to classify according to one dimension and sort according to a simple law" are put into the calculation area of all ages in our continuous operation and adjustment, and these materials all imply the mathematical education goals of all ages. Let children gain key experiences through play and operation in a relaxed and pleasant environment.

2, starting from the overall development of children, reflecting the hierarchy of materials.

The goal of kindergarten mathematics education is an organic whole and an orderly organized system. Generally speaking, it can be divided into three levels: general goal, age stage goal and mathematics education activity goal; From a horizontal perspective, it can be generally divided into three categories: cognitive goals, emotional attitude goals and operational skills goals. Children's level should be considered in mathematical operations, that is, the level of children's independent activities should be considered. At different stages of children's development, their ability of independent activities is at different levels. In order to make children truly develop in an all-round way, we must formulate the goals of open activities in detail before operating activities. The formulation of open goals should be based on the development level and individual differences of children in this class, and follow the principles of from easy to difficult, from simple to complex and step by step. We should not only pay attention to the coherence and systematization of knowledge, but also consider the formation of children's ability, emotion and attitude, and be open to children's life experience and imagination to meet their psychological needs of independent development at different levels. For example, my teacher's self-made "Little Tadpole Looking for Mother to Calculate Chess" contains boring mathematical concepts in an interesting and familiar storyline, which children are very willing to accept and try. Using a story scene can contain different levels and different categories of goals. In terms of cognitive goals, we can correctly distinguish "1" and "many" by using small classes, learn to consistently count objects within 5, say the total number, and take things according to the number (within 5). Middle shift can be used to recognize numbers within 10, understand the meaning of numbers, express the number of objects with numbers, and correctly count objects within 10. You can learn the composition and decomposition of numbers within 10 in large classes, understand their inclusion, exchange and complementarity, learn the addition and subtraction within 10, and experience the realization of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In terms of operation skills, we can learn to take, place and operate activity materials as required, learn basic mathematical operation skills, be able to hear clearly the rules of operation activities, carry out activities according to the rules and check the process and results of activities, and learn to place and arrange activity materials in an orderly manner. In terms of emotional and attitudinal goals: it is helpful to answer questions boldly in mathematical activities, like to choose mathematical activities in daily life, learn to play mathematical games with peers in a friendly way, and coordinate the realization of peer relations by taking turns, waiting appropriately and negotiating. With the gradual improvement of the goal, different requirements are put forward for children, which is conducive to the development of children at the original level, which is also a concrete manifestation of the openness of the goal.

Second, the design of materials should respect children's cognitive characteristics and be scientific.

Materials are not only tools to help children systematically construct mathematical knowledge, but also an important means to guide children to learn mathematical knowledge and develop their thinking ability. Therefore, children's age characteristics and cognitive rules should be fully considered when providing materials. For example, children in small classes are easy to imitate in the cognitive process, with poor learning purpose and weak sense of task, and are often only interested in the tools of activities and the use of tools. However, in large classes, their learning objectives have been enhanced, they can work hard to complete their learning tasks and attach importance to learning results and evaluation. The cognitive characteristics of small classes and large classes are different, and the effects of the same materials are completely different. In practice, we find that it is very effective for large class teachers to use seals and physics exercises. But the effect of moving the same material into a small category is completely different. After providing the small fish seal, the teacher in the small class asked the children to print a small fish on the back of a small fish, 1 plus 1 is 2. The children were very excited to print the seal on the paper. They printed small fish on their faces and hands. The teacher was confused and thought that the child was deliberately naughty. After collective teaching and research and reflection, it is analyzed that this is caused by improper materials. Therefore, children's age characteristics and cognitive level should be fully considered when transmitting materials. Make it achieve the best effect.

Third, the choice of materials should meet the needs of children at different levels of development.

Materials are the carrier of children's active construction of knowledge. When delivering materials, we should not only consider the age characteristics of children, but also consider individual differences. The outline clearly puts forward: provide rich and operable materials to provide conditions for each child to explore in a variety of senses and ways. Due to the richness of the levels of the goals of mathematics education activities, the compilation of activity materials should also reflect the levels and diversity of the goals of mathematics education. Hierarchical structure should be suitable for children's development level, and children's "nearest development area" should be selected to provide children with different functions and difficulties, so that children at different levels can actively operate and explore, thus effectively promoting each child's development on the original basis.

1, the same material should have different requirements at different ages.

There are stages in children's development, and there is a big gap in children's learning, sports and psychological development at different ages. Therefore, homework materials should be suitable for children's different age characteristics, and teachers must choose content from the original experience and actual level of children in this class and provide materials appropriately to effectively promote children's development. For example, if you are playing computational poker, the small class can choose the number 1-5 in poker, and choose 2-3 colors and figures, so that the children can count and classify the points according to a characteristic (color or figure) of the object. The middle class can choose the numbers within 10, the colors and figures of 6-7, know and understand the numbers within 10, learn the arithmetic relationship between two adjacent numbers, and consolidate the practice of sorting. In the big class, you can choose all the numbers, colors and figures to count, classify, add and subtract.

2. Classes of the same age should meet the operational needs of children with different levels of development.

The development level of children is not uniform, and there are individual differences among children of the same age. Materials that are easy to operate for some children may make other children find it difficult or even impossible to start. In view of this situation, in order to fully mobilize every child's learning enthusiasm and stimulate their desire to explore, teachers should design operating activity materials with different functions and difficulties for children with different development levels from the perspective of their development level and their "nearest development zone", so that they can choose materials from different starting points and gradually meet the target requirements according to different requirements and different development speeds. For example: sorting activities, we provide some children with materials with only one variable; At the same time, two kinds of variable materials can be provided for another part of children, and they are equipped with markers with variable characteristics, so that they can sort according to the markers; After completing the classification of a material, children are allowed to change different levels of materials for activities. This not only meets the needs of children at different levels, but also enables every child to have a successful experience.

Fourth, the material should be rich and varied.

Rich and varied operating materials are the material basis for children to try, which can stimulate their enthusiasm for active exploration and help them complete the learning process.

1. Provide diversified materials around educational goals.

A psychologist once said that "changeable stimuli are easy to attract children's attention". Therefore, when providing and selecting materials for children, teachers should start from the educational goals and the needs of all aspects involved in children's development, serve to achieve educational goals and promote children's development. Therefore, the materials that teachers put in are as diverse as possible, giving children rich sensory stimulation and stimulating their desire and interest in exploration. During the research, through observation, we found that children would concentrate on thinking for a few minutes in a corner and quickly complete their activity goals. Then, they will look around and do nothing. Obviously, this is because they have lost interest in materials. Therefore, teachers should also consider providing a variety of materials around the same goal to avoid duplication and similar materials, so as to stimulate children's interest in inquiry and meet their needs. For example, around the goal of "Neighborhood", the teachers in the middle class provide children with many materials, such as sending chickens home, dressing pigs, interesting dolls, a happy circus, helping Cong Cong find friends and so on. Just like in the "matching" operation exercise, the materials we provide include size matching and shape matching; There are also a variety of materials, such as measurement. It can be said that if children really want to interact with materials and stimulate their interest in inquiry, they must ensure that there are enough materials for children to operate, so as to keep children's inquiry into mathematics fresh and full of strong interest, and thus get positive development.

2, the number of homework materials should be able to meet the needs of all children's free choice.

In the transmission of materials, we pay more attention to the variety and quantity, satisfy children's curiosity and cognitive interest, meet children's needs of free choice, and allow children to add and replace operating materials according to their own wishes. For example:

Through the observation in teaching and research activities, small class children especially like imitation, and sometimes compare with each other because of the novelty and interest of peer-operated materials, thus affecting the normal conduct of regional activities. This requires teachers to appropriately increase the amount of the same materials when putting them in, so as to meet the needs of children who also have the desire to operate and ensure the smooth operation of children.

In short, through a stage of exploration and practice, we clearly realize that the interaction between children and materials in computing activities is a continuous inquiry process, which can promote children's active learning, and then generate curiosity and strong desire and motivation to explore, so that children can learn mathematics more actively, thus cultivating children's ability to independently discover and analyze problems, as well as a positive attitude to explore and solve problems, and promoting the effective construction of children's logarithmic concepts and experiences.