March 25, 2018

When mentioning the Nine Streams and Eighteen Streams in Hangzhou, perhaps the first thing many people think of is the beauty brought by the gurgling streams in summer. Cool and cool feeling. However, if you come here around the Qingming Festival in spring, you can also enjoy the scene of Longjing tea trees sprouting new buds and farmers picking and frying tea, which is also a unique style.

In this natural beauty education activity, ***12 children from our nine-family family (including 10 children aged 5 to 6 years old and 2 children aged 3 to 4 years old) and their parents went to the Jiuxi Eighteen Streams together. , to find the feeling of spring!

Necessary materials: two small cartons/paper bags, a piece of cover cloth; some lotus root knots, fruit knife

Optional materials: pine cones, shells, feathers, etc. (as a precaution Used when the collection of natural objects on site is not rich enough), and band-aids.

1. Collect natural objects and make a "tactile box". Exercise children's tactile ability and language expression ability.

2. Through the "walk without talking" game, children can exercise their hearing ability and understand the meaning of "maintaining concentration".

3. Use lotus root joints to build and decorate "little houses" for little ants to cultivate children's closeness and care for small creatures in nature.

After we gathered at the Jiuxi Yanshu Stele Pavilion, we came to the starting point of the trip that required "crossing the river on stones".

First of all, emphasize with the children the requirements for collecting natural objects: collect almost identical two copies of each item. Demonstration: For example, two sections of branches with almost the same length and thickness or two wild flowers of the same species (note that artificial plants such as tea leaves cannot be collected)

Secondly, you can also listen to it on the way over. What sounds can be heard?

Start "crossing the river by feeling this stone"! For children, it is a natural level-breaking game! There are eight passes from Jiuxi Yanshu to Longjing Village.

At the finish line, we took stock of our harvest. In addition to the branches, fallen leaves, weeds, wild flowers, stones and small pine cones collected by the children, ask if you heard any sounds? The five children who finally made it to the finish line looked at each other a little bit, and none of them said anything about the impression of the sound.

Then let’s continue and return the way we came. But on the way back, we have to play a game called "walk without talking". Note that you can only speak for help unless it is a particularly urgent situation, such as being injured! During this silent walk, you can continue to collect natural objects while paying attention to various sounds.

About half an hour later - when I met children who had not reached the end, they also joined the "walk without talking" team midway - we returned to the starting point along the same route.

Summary review: What are the different requirements in the process of walking over and back?

Some children quickly answered that there was a difference between the permission to speak and the requirement not to speak. Although the degree of implementation of each of them is different, the feedback situation is obviously different. The children responded enthusiastically: When I went there, I just heard the sound of chattering! When they came back, some heard the sound of running water, some heard the chirping of birds, and some heard the chirping of cicadas or small insects - these made the children very excited.

Therefore, let’s give children a personal experience: when we are not talking, it is easier for us to use our ears and hear a lot of unexpected sound information! It is very practical for children who are about to enter primary school!

Divide the natural objects collected by the children that meet the "duplicate" requirement (plus some pine cones, shells, and feathers I prepared in advance) into two corresponding batches, and put them into two batches respectively. In a paper bag. Cover the opening of one paper bag with a covering (such as a scarf), and leave the other open.

Ask children to pair up in pairs.

Game rules: A child puts his hand into a paper bag covered by a scarf (note: he cannot look at the contents of another open paper bag) and touches an object. Describe the overall feeling of the item as accurately and specifically as possible, but the name of the item must not appear in the description language; try to let your teammates guess what item you touched within one minute, and then the two Take them out for comparison at the same time and reveal the answer! Teammates get one point for guessing correctly. After that, the roles of the two are reversed, and the one who guesses correctly gets another point.

The team that can score two points wins!

The game "Tactile Box" not only exercises children's tactile perception ability, but I also unexpectedly discovered that in the process of describing objects, children also need to have a way to grasp one thing and other things. The main difference is the ability to summarize and express "in one sentence"! For example, for stones, the first description is "heavy", which is the most distinctive feature compared with other natural objects, rather than descriptions such as oval and rough; another example is the description of shells: "One side is smooth and the other is rough. ", and my teammates guessed the answer right away (compared to my idea of ??how to describe the rough texture of a big shell, there really is no harm without comparison. I want to go to the corner and cry for a while...

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Regarding the origin of this part of the link, it is actually this: I had planned to make some "flower arrangements in the kitchen", and using lotus root joints as containers for flower arrangements was one of the contents. But after her daughter saw it, she felt that the holes in the lotus root joints were very suitable for making tunnels and small houses for little ants. So this part of the activity was born: using lotus root joints to make small houses for little ants.

The children who happened to participate in this activity also raised ants in the kindergarten, and observed through glass containers the process of ants digging tunnels and building underground palaces in the "soil layer". So when it comes to using lotus root joints with holes to build houses for ants, I think it is perfect! Then get started!

Because lotus roots are relatively hard, parents should take good care of children when cutting them!

The children were full of love. They not only decorated a beautiful home for the little ants, but also shared many of their snacks with them!

Some even built ladders for the little ants to make it easier for them to climb up to the roof to eat delicious food; some opened windows so they could breathe and enjoy the scenery; some set up pergolas to provide picnic tables for the little ants. Mat; some hang the huts on the trees haha...

Let the children talk about the reasons for the design of the unique ant huts; what conveniences are provided for the ants to eat delicious food, etc.

There is a saying in "Zhuangzi. Zhibeiyou": The beauty of heaven and earth is not mentioned, the laws of the four seasons are clear but not discussed, and the principles of all things are not explained.

We may say to our children: "You have to use your heart to experience it." But for preschoolers, the most suitable method for their specific operation may be to use "visual, Practice and experience activities of the "five senses" including hearing, touch, taste, and smell. I think these innate sensory abilities probably follow the natural law of "use it or lose it". For example, if you observe the process of children learning music and English, you will find that the sensitivity of hearing is far higher than that of untrained adults. Maintain sensitivity to nature: an exquisite appreciation of colors, sounds, textures, tastes and even emotions is the basis for in-depth creative work and life in the future, combined with the knowledge learned in basic subjects.

On the other hand, nature has generously given us abundant opportunities for sensory experience, and we humans (especially the traditional Chinese concepts), as a part of the laws of heaven and earth, have no reason to treat nature Turn a blind eye to the environment and treat it with indifference. Every plant and tree has feelings, and innocent children are full of natural curiosity and care for the little creatures in nature. "If you are interested, you will get close. If you get close, you will fall in love. If you fall in love, you will protect each other." This sentence left a deep impression on me.

Perhaps this is the importance of nature education as an indispensable link in the process of "whole person" education.

Sunshine, air and love, the most precious things in the world are nothing.

Cherish every comfortable and hazy-free day!