7.3. FORMATION IN CHILDREN OF REPRESENTATIONS OF FORM OF SUBJECTS

The formation of geometric representations in preschool children is of great importance for the sensory and mental development of children.

The sensory development of a child is the development of his perception and the formation of ideas about the external properties of objects. The value of sensory development in early and preschool childhood is difficult to overestimate. It is this age that is most favorable for the improvement of the activity of the senses, the accumulation of ideas about the surrounding world.

In the classic systems of sensory learning, F. Fröbel and M. Montessori present methods for familiarizing children with geometric shapes. The “Gifts” created by F. Frebel and are currently used as didactic material for familiarizing children with the shape of objects.

With the perception of objects and phenomena of the world begins knowledge. All other forms of knowledge - thinking, memory - are based on the images of perception.

In preschool age, the development of sensations and perceptions is very intense. At the same time, the correct ideas about objects, in particular, their forms are easier formed in the process of their direct perception. In the process of sensory perception, the selected properties of objects, in our case this form of an object, become the object of a specially organized perception, as a result of which they are successfully mastered and a foundation is created for the effective formation of various activities of preschool children (play, work, productively creative).

The mastery of the basic forms and their verbal designations facilitates the child's orientation in the surrounding world. Faced, for example, with a subject of a particular form, the child can relate it to the basic forms known to him, note the similarities and differences: "It looks like a cube." Acquired knowledge and skills help children correctly analyze various forms of objects and then reproduce them in drawings and buildings. These basic forms act as standards, patterns that help children understand the variety of properties of objects.

The development of perception is a complex process, which includes as the main points children’s mastering the “sensory standards” developed by society and mastering the methods of examining objects. The term “sensory standards” was proposed by A. V. Zaporozhets.

Sensory standards are generally accepted examples of each type of property and relationship of objects. So, in the field of the form are geometric figures.

The idea of ​​the shape of the object as the boundary between objects and the surrounding space occurs in children very early. Studies show that an infant recognizes the bottle shape from which it drinks milk. Already in early childhood, they recognize objects familiar to children, regardless of their spatial position.

A significant role in understanding the shape of objects is played by geometric figures, with which vital objects are compared. Children 3-4 years old perceive geometric shapes as ordinary toys and, by analogy with familiar household items, call them the names of these items.

The first information about the geometric shapes children get in the game. The teacher correctly names the geometric shapes, but does not want the children to remember them. It is important that children examine these geometric shapes with visual and motor-tactile analyzers. For comparison of figures, you can use the techniques of overlay and application, but it is necessary to give children geometric shapes in pairs.

Algorithm for familiarizing preschoolers with geometric shapes:  

- the teacher shows a geometric figure, calls it;

- invites children to show the same, call it;

- invites children to find it among others;

- invites children to explore the geometric shape;

- suggests children to name signs of a geometrical figure;

- invites children to compare it with other geometric shapes;

- invites children to perform practical actions with geometric shapes.

Examination and comparison of geometric shapes is carried out in a specific order; What is it? What colour? What size? What is the difference? What are the figures like?

Such a specific order teaches children to consistently examine and examine geometric shapes, make comparisons on uniform signs, highlight essential properties and distract from non-essential properties.

Of great importance is the tactile-motor examination of models. Connecting the hand to the work of the eye improves the perception of the form. Children groping the model with their fingertips, circling its outline. The outline of the outline of the model ends with a hand on its surface.

Mutual superposition of one shape on another: a circle and a square; square and rectangle; square and triangle; square and rectangle allows children to more clearly perceive the features of the figures of each type, to highlight their elements.

It is important from the outset to form in children the right skills to show the elements of geometric shapes. A vertex is a point. Children show the sides and angles of a geometric shape. Angle - a part of a plane that is enclosed between two rays (sides) emanating from one point.

To consolidate and refine the knowledge they give various kinds of tasks to reproduce figures. Children cut out flat figures from paper, mold volumetric from plasticine, transform figures, receive others from them. Use the exercises in sketching geometric shapes.

Before drawing a circle and oval-shaped figures, you can suggest that the child put a circle on a square, an oval shape on a rectangle, then cut a circle from a square, and an oval shape from a rectangle — this will help children understand the principle of drawing this shape.

In working with children, entertaining games and exercises of geometric content bring great benefit. They develop an interest in mathematical knowledge, contribute to the formation of mental abilities of children of preschool age.