Abstract: The organization and guidance of mixed-age regional activities in kindergartens is a subject worthy of attention. Environmental creation is the basis for effective development of mixed-age regional activities, and strategic support is the guarantee for smooth implementation of mixed-age regional activities. The environment creation of mixed-age regional activities includes creating an environment that supports children's independent activities and creating an environment that supports children's active participation. Teachers should take a step-by-step approach, grasp the frequency of mixed-age regional activities, do a good job in guiding mixed-age regional activities, and provide strategic support for mixed-age regional activities.

Keywords: mixed-age regional activities; Environmental creation; policy support

The Guide to Learning and Development for Children Aged 3-6 (hereinafter referred to as the Guide) points out that "when organizing activities, kindergartens can often break the boundaries of classes and give children more opportunities to participate in activities of different groups." If teachers break the class boundaries from the same age to different ages when carrying out regional activities, such regional activities are called mixed-age regional activities. Mixed-age regional activities have increasingly become a topic of concern for preschool teachers, because they can provide children with more abundant activities and more challenging exchange and learning opportunities. In recent years, Baoxiu Kindergarten in Fengze District, Quanzhou City, where the author works, has actively explored the organization and implementation of mixed-age regional activities and achieved good results.

First, environmental creation: the basis for the effective development of mixed-age regional activities

The scientific planning and layout of regional activity space is the basis of carrying out activities. To create an effective environment for mixed-age regional activities, we should focus on two aspects: to create an environment that supports children's independent activities and to create an environment that supports children's active participation.

Create an environment that supports children's independent activities

1. Plan a reasonable activity space

The activity space in the mixed-age area of Baoxiu Kindergarten is created by using irregular spaces such as corridors, outdoors and stair corners, which has certain constraints and challenges for carrying out activities. Therefore, the first task is to create conditions according to local conditions and effectively support children's activities. For example, there is a "folk game area" between the playground and the corridor, which has a large activity space. "Erythrina Food Plaza" is located between the kitchen and the plantation, which can combine food picking and food production activities. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that all kinds of moving lines in the activity space are unobstructed, such as taking and placing materials, walking in the aisle, and turning around without interference. In practice, we mainly refer to the standard of "space and facilities" in the Evaluation Scale of Children's Learning Environment to plan and create the existing environment. For example, in the "space" project, the minimum standard is to "provide enough space for children, adults and facilities" ... the space is quite clean and well managed; All children and adults can use the space without barriers "[1]. The standard of "Indoor Game Space Planning" is that drawing at least five different areas of interest can provide a variety of learning experiences; The layout of the interest area enables children to use it independently (accordingly, we put labeled material boxes and so on. ); There are extra materials to enrich or change the area of interest (accordingly, we have created a material supermarket, etc. ) [2] ... Facts show that establishing standards based on mature children's learning environment can give teachers a basis in their work and lay a good material foundation for the smooth development of mixed-age regional activities.

2. Create a silent environmental language

To carry out activities in mixed-age areas, it is necessary to have environmental preparation to support children's activities of all ages, that is, to play the role of "silent teacher" of the environment and strengthen the prompt function of the environment. Firstly, color recognition and area entry clip are used to indicate the active objects and the number of people entering the area, thus effectively establishing the basic routine of activities. One is to distinguish objects entering the area by color. The sign frame of each district entering the area is the children's work Xun Puzanhua Hood, and the color of the hat is the same as the basic color of each floor. What color hat is there at the sign, indicating that there are activities that children of the corresponding age can participate in, so that teachers and children can see the objects entering the area at a glance. The second is to prompt the number of people entering the area with clips. The hairpin on the flower hat can be clamped with a wooden clip. Before class, the teacher will clip a planned number of small clips, and each clip will hang a card to remind and control the number of people entering the area. It is worth mentioning that the pass is made of common shells (natural objects), and the three sections are abalone, snail and clam shell respectively. After the decoration, write down the category and number, and you can use it by drilling holes through the hemp rope. Many tourists commented that our entry card is both practical and environmentally friendly. Secondly, the way of "task card" and "material supermarket" is adopted to help children choose suitable activities independently, so that children can "talk" with materials, and teachers can give personalized guidance to children through "interactive dialogue" information to promote their experience accumulation. Among them, the "task card" refers to the card as the carrier, showing the main operation steps of a specific activity in an illustrated way, so that children can understand the operation requirements, required materials, step methods and precautions of the activity. Card and card pocket are also distinguished by color, that is, "green, yellow and blue" represent "small, medium and large" respectively. The task cards are made and published according to the guide "Typical Performance of Children of All Ages", and set in the form of theme series, that is, there are three series of task cards with the same theme, green, yellow and blue, and the difficulty is distinguished by the number of stars on the card: the more stars, the greater the difficulty; Numbers are marked on the back of the card, indicating the order of delivery progress of the card, to show orderly progress and in-depth experience accumulation. Take the theme of "packaging" in the area of "Tea Town" as an example: all small, medium and large teams have a series of task cards with the theme of "packaging", and the large-scale series cards have a "bulk tea weighing and packaging, sealed packaging, 5 grams a pack. Need ... (tool materials) ",the card is blue, with the main operation steps of" drawing main text auxiliary "on it, the difficulty is four stars, and the number on the back of the card is" 5 "(major tasks, four-star difficulty, fifth activity), which is put in the" packaging "theme activity bag in the blue card area. Children in large classes with activity experience can choose this task directly, and inexperienced children will try to operate tasks from "1" to "4" under the guidance of the teacher. Practice shows that task cards are beneficial to children's independent activities at different levels of development. Children with strong ability can complete the task by themselves according to the tips of the task card, while children with weak ability can look for places with inadequate preparation and improper operation according to the card and control the activity rhythm independently. This guidance strategy is similar to Montessori's use of "error control" to help children learn independently, which can make children "choose independently under the external conditions of error control, actively avoid all risks and adverse consequences brought by errors" [3] and "emphasize individual autonomy in essence" [4]. For example, in the big class "packaging" theme activity, a child is very interested in the balance activity and constantly chooses the related task of "balance weighing". Due to continuous operation and exploration, his weighing experience has been deeply developed and he has gained a sense of accomplishment in completing the task. "Material supermarket" refers to the experience of sorting and packaging materials and tools by referring to the items stacked on the open shelves of supermarkets, and pasting photos of items on boxes, so that children can choose to take and put materials independently. For example, in the "Creative Workshop", a large class of children chose the blue Samsung task card of "Makeup Cake Man", chose tools and materials according to the prompts, went to the "treasure chest" to find straws and leaves to create their own works, made a cake loader wearing a straw necklace and a leaf skirt, and showed his works. The actual operation is more difficult than the scheduled task. Practice shows that the establishment of "task card" and "material supermarket" is helpful for children in mixed-age areas to choose and manage activities and tasks independently, promote the deep accumulation and promotion of children's experience, and meet the needs of children's individualized development. Third, provide appropriate "labor tasks and requirements tips" and labor tools to help children clean up the environment. Novice teachers pay more attention to the explicit goals of activities and ignore the value of implicit goals, such as not paying attention to and not knowing how to organize children to do environmental cleaning after activities. Therefore, teachers can solve this problem by properly arranging labor tasks and providing "labor demand tips" and labor tools. The labor task and demand prompt diagram includes two parts: the student prompt board on duty and the labor demand prompt diagram. Labor tasks include sweeping the floor, cleaning the table, cleaning the floor and taking out the garbage. Different students on duty have different labor tasks on the "signboard" to clarify the specific work of each student on duty. The "labor demand prompt diagram" indicates the specific labor task requirements, such as "washing away stains", "drying water traces" and "returning mops and buckets", and defines the labor result requirements. Provide suitable labor tools, that is to say, children's labor tools should be small in size and require less operating force. For example, dishsponges should be used instead of rags, miniature labor tools and labor protection tools for children, such as sleeves, isolation gown, rain boots and gloves. Practice has proved that "labor tasks and requirements prompt diagram" and providing appropriate labor tools can help teachers and children to do a good job of cleaning up with goals and division of labor, exercise children's labor ability, cultivate children's good labor habits and practice "doing their own thing".

Create an environment that supports children's active participation.

The process of participating in environmental creation is also a learning process. Teachers support children to participate in the creation of environment by setting up "representation area" and "task drifting station". The first is the creation of representative areas. The "performance area" is the activity theme framework provided by the teacher, which allows children to show their ideas and plans by drawing and then fill them in. It is a form of expression and communication of children's ideological activities, and it is also a basis for teachers to promote activities. For example, before the theme activities in the "Tea Town" area were carried out, the teacher guided the children and parents to make a graphic representation of the tea theme survey together and put it into the theme display board. After statistics, it is found that the theme of "eating" such as tea food is the most concerned, so teachers have formulated the theme plan of "tea food and tea". Children's interest is very high, and they express their desire to "drink scented tea" and "package their own tea food" by means of pictures, so the district has carried out related activities such as "scented tea" and "tea food gift" to better combine the preset plan with children's interest. The second is the creation of the task drifting station. Each district has created a "task drifting station", which contains task cards designed by children themselves, and interested children operate, display or take away the works. For example, in the "task drifting station" of the "wood workshop", the task cards put by children include tasks such as making small chairs, tables and wooden ponies, which are selected and made by the children of the "wood workshop" and displayed at the drifting station for everyone to use. The activities of the "Task Drifting Station" are initiated and participated by the children themselves, so the children have a high sense of interest and accomplishment.

Second, strategic support: the guarantee for the effective implementation of mixed-age regional activities

In mixed-age regional activities, children of different ages and classes have different physical and mental development levels and specific conditions, and their activity needs are also different. Therefore, we should do a good job in the form, frequency, venue, preparation, observation and guidance of activities to ensure the quality of activities in mixed-age areas.

Take a step-by-step approach.

In the first round of activities, teachers can first fix a class in a district, and then advance in the order of "mixing year by year, mixing in the same column, mixing in different columns, and mixing in the whole garden". Before the activity, teachers organize children to contact with new partners, help children to establish good relations with new partners smoothly, and keep the organization and promotion process of the activity orderly. To carry out mixed-age regional activities, children or teachers need to have a process of familiarity and experience accumulation in this new form of activities. If you rush for success, it will lead to chaos. Practice shows that it is necessary and effective to adopt a step-by-step approach. At present, there are nine classes in Baoxiu Kindergarten. The first round of launch lasted for two academic years, and nine districts including Tea Village, Carpenter Creative Workshop, Minnan Wild Fun Workshop, Small Shell Creative Workshop, Erythrina Cuisine, Interesting Folk Games, Small Aquarium, Xunpu Style Garden and Qiaoxiu Workshop were set up successively. There are six or seven districts in each district, which can meet the needs of children in the whole park. The first semester of mixed-age activities in Baoxiu Kindergarten is the activity stage of one class and one district, that is, only three districts of "Tea Village", "Little Carpenter's Creative Workshop" and "Xunpu Style Garden" are set up in the middle class, and each class is only active in this district, and no mixed-age activities are organized, so that teachers and children can be familiar with and adapt to the activities in public areas. Children in small classes are familiar with the kindergarten environment and adapt to the kindergarten collective life, so they only carry out regular regional activities in their own classes. In the second semester, each middle school class divided the children into two groups (March-May) or three groups (June) for mixed activities every month, with two classes mixed every month from March to May and three middle schools mixed in June, which promoted the mixed activities of different classes of the same age; In the second semester, the small class entered the activity stage of one class and one district according to the practice of the middle class last semester. In the third semester, the original middle school class entered the middle school class, and the first semester started according to the mixed-age regional activities. The new middle class should be in the activity stage of one class and one district. However, because the middle class at this time has accumulated the experience of activities in one small class and one district, in the third semester, the children who upgraded from the original small class to the middle class directly entered the mixed activity stage of the middle class. In the fourth semester, the middle and large classes entered the stage of autonomous mixed-age regional activities; The way children in small classes carry out regional activities is very different from the original second semester. Under the guidance of teachers, they directly enter the stage of mixed-age regional activities in middle and large classes. This is because at this time, the teacher has accumulated some experience in organizing and guiding activities in mixed-age areas, and is familiar with the process, rules and precautions of activities. In addition, the children in the middle and large classes have rich experience in activities, which has a good demonstration and driving effect on the children in the small classes who have just arrived. Therefore, in the second school year of the start-up period, the park-wide mixed-age regional activities were officially launched. Then every autumn, it directly enters the normal operation period of the mixed-age regional activities in the whole park.

(B) master the frequency of mixed-age regional activities

The mixed-age regional activities in Baoxiu Kindergarten are held once a week, and the educational value of mixed-age regional activities and class regional activities are complementary: class regional activities are conducive to the in-depth development of children's activity experience, and its importance is self-evident, and most of the time needs to be arranged; Mixed-age regional activities can effectively promote the communication between children and "familiar and unfamiliar partners" in the park and enhance their social communication ability; The activity places in the mixed-age area are also from the activity room to the outdoor, such as plantations, corridors, playgrounds, small aquariums, pools and so on. Let children have a more free outdoor learning and communication experience. The complementary experience of different forms of activities enables children to develop in a more comprehensive and three-dimensional way. The frequency of once a week will not destroy the existing work and rest rules of children, which is conducive to cultivating children's habits and abilities of moderate intake and withdrawal.

(3) Do a good job in guiding activities in mixed-age areas.

Compared with class regional activities, the preparation of materials and experience involved in mixed-age regional activities needs more careful design and arrangement. First, make an appointment before entering the area. Baoxiu Kindergarten mixed-age regional activities are open once every Wednesday morning, requiring teachers or parents to take their children to prepare for Monday's appointment by taking a walk, leaving school and other fragmented time, and record the selection results on the class appointment form. On the day of the activity, the teacher will send the children to the area according to the appointment form. The system of making an appointment in advance can not only cultivate the planning of children's work, but also ensure the regular order of entering the area. The second is to do a good job in guiding the activities. In order to support teachers to do a good job of observation and recording, teachers are equipped with recording tools, camera racks (cameras are placed), pocket aprons and other equipment in the activity area, which provides conditions for teachers to carry out observation and recording. In the activity, teachers take the way of division of labor and cooperation to jointly undertake the guidance of children in the activity area. The main work of the main class teacher in the mixed-age area is to receive and organize the children entering the park, including roll call and concentrated conversation. The purpose of concentrated conversation is to help children understand the content and requirements of this activity. First of all, analyze the problems existing in the last activity and introduce the new materials or requirements of the activity. Followed by observation and guidance, including observing and guiding children according to the plan, and conducting inspections in various regions, striving to "take children as the center of curriculum organization, pay attention to children's behavioral phenomena and the appearance of their true ability in the process of teaching aid operation" [5] "lest the whole teaching become only the standardized and mechanized operation of teaching AIDS, which is just a formality and hinders children's development" [6]. Finally, collect materials and organize children's representation. The main job of the class teacher is to guide the children in regional activities to complete the activities independently from beginning to end in a planned way (such as according to the task card); The life teacher's task is to guide the children to clean their own venues and organize the children in middle and large classes to complete the sanitation and cleaning work. The third is to do a good job of feedback after the activity. After the activity, the main class teacher will upload the observation records (such as children's activities, matters to be explained and related photos and videos) to the kindergarten QQ working group. Teachers in each class will discuss solutions and promotion plans with children according to the situation to ensure the organic combination of class regional activities and mixed-age regional activities. Teachers in all districts can learn about activities in other districts and share suggestions, countermeasures and experiences through the kindergarten QQ working group. At this point, the organization of mixed-age areas has achieved a closed-loop connection (activity content proposal → activity development → observation and evaluation → reflection and promotion → new activity content), which has promoted teachers and children to gain useful experience through mixed-age regional activities and effectively promoted the in-depth organization and development of mixed-age regional activities.

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