First, the characteristics of children's innovative thinking development and children's innovative activities:
Up to now, there are more than one definition of creativity: 100. The unanimous statement is "the ability to produce a novel, unique, social or personal product by using all known information according to a certain purpose".
Tao Xingzhi, a famous educator in China, once said: "everywhere is a place of creation, every day is a time of creation, and everyone is a creator." For children's creativity, we can neither underestimate nor blindly boost it, let alone confuse children's creativity and innovative thinking with adults. Children's creativity and creative activities have their own unique characteristics, which are mainly manifested in two aspects:
Children's creativity belongs to expressive creativity, which mainly refers to the creative behavior based on freedom and interest, generated by situations and interest, such as: children's different understanding of the picture when they look at pictures and explain pictures, and various actions and plots added in story performance; Create lyrics and actions in music activities; The conception and arrangement of theme pictures in art activities are the embodiment of children's creativity. Although this kind of creation is a relatively low-level creative activity and can't bring any value to society, we can't deny the potential value of children's creativity. Because creativity is a sustainable development process from low to high, it lays the foundation for high-level and high-level creativity and activities.
Children's creative activities begin with primitive imitation. For children, the first imitation is actually creation, because both the way of imitation and the content of imitation are novel and unique to him. At the same time, in the process of imitation, children gain knowledge and experience about the relationship between actions and things, which provides conditions and foundation for the following creative activities. In this respect, children's imitation and creation are inseparable, which is completely different from adults' imitation. In addition, children's creativity and creative thinking are characterized by strong spontaneity and wide expression.
Second, several factors affecting the development of children's creativity A large number of studies show that there are many factors affecting the development of children's creativity, including physiological and genetic factors, environmental factors, individual subjective factors, etc., among which children's own psychological factors such as motivation, personality and mental health play an important role in restricting the development of children's creativity. In the actual teaching process, we can find that active children often have the following characteristics: strong curiosity, inquisitiveness, rich feelings, rich sense of humor, courage, perseverance, self-confidence, diligence, enterprising, rapid development of self-awareness, patience and meticulous work. Children who are timid, afraid of failure and lazy are often children with poor creativity. The external environment has a great influence on children's creativity. The external environment we are talking about mainly includes three aspects: school education environment, family living environment and big social environment.
Basic Ways and Methods to Cultivate Children's Creativity We also recognize the importance of children's creativity and the internal and external factors that restrict children's creativity. So how can we develop children's creativity? According to my research, I found the following points:
(1) Create an environment conducive to the development of children's creativity 1. The wall of the kindergarten activity room is full of childlike pictures, which contains a beautiful and interesting fairy tale: "The Waterway Adventures of the Little White Goose Brothers". Children can imagine their experiences along the way and finally return to their hometown by watermelon boat. The painting "Small Animals and Their Pumpkin Cars" can fully stimulate children's creativity and imagination. Pumpkin carts can use flowers as wheels. What else can they use? Who is the right driver and why? In this way, the environment contains many factors that encourage children to fantasize and create, stimulate children's creative desire, and let children give full play to their creativity in a relaxed and happy environment.
2. Create a psychological atmosphere that encourages children to create.
As I mentioned above, children's creative thinking is weak, immature, changeable and easily influenced by the outside world, so we should create a psychological atmosphere to encourage children to develop their creativity. First of all, our teachers should strengthen their study, change the concept that is not conducive to children's innovative thinking, and realize that the process of creation is very important, even more important than the result. We should maintain a positive, encouraging and identifying attitude towards every child, fully respect them, be their friends, let them boldly imagine and create, and give full play to their potential. Teachers are organized planners, but they will not be too persistent and lose flexibility. They give their children a creative world, knowing that each child's creative performance is unique, not uniform. We should be good at evaluation and improvement, and make education suitable for ourselves and each unique child. For example, children are curious and imaginative, and there is a spark of creation hidden in their childlike ideas. Seeing that hydrogen balloons can take people into the sky, the children boldly put forward their own ideas: why not invent a hydrogen balloon flying machine so that children can control their own direction and speed and take them to kindergarten every day? What an interesting and lovely idea! Although their ideas will surpass reality and even be absurd, we do not measure them by the standards of adults, but keenly capture the "bright spots" of their innovative thinking and guide them effectively, so that they can boldly imagine and take the initiative to choose in a relaxed atmosphere, thus showing their originality and specificity.
3. A good family environment has an important influence on cultivating children's creativity.
Family is the cradle of children's growth, and parents are their first teachers. Parents' concern and participation can play a multiplier role in cultivating children's creativity. To cultivate children's creativity, we must win the support of parents and let them know the importance of developing children's creativity. The main drawback of traditional education in China lies in neglecting the cultivation of children's creativity. Many parents are concerned about how many Chinese characters their children know, how many poems they have learned and how many stories they can tell ... but they don't encourage their children to create them themselves. Once, I went to a child's house as a guest, and the arrival of the teacher made the child ecstatic. He took out his favorite electric toy and showed me all kinds of games. Finally, he took the electric toy down and put it back on. The child's grandmother was very angry when she saw the child tearing things down all over the floor. While reprimanding, she put away the toys for the children, and then insisted that the reluctant children recite Tang poems for me. I'm not saying that it's not good for children to recite Tang poems. Of course, reciting Tang poems and retelling stories can develop children's memory, but children love to disassemble some electric toys, which is a sign that children's creativity begins to develop. Therefore, parents should realize the role of this habit of using hands and brains in developing children's creativity, so as to change their concepts and create a good family atmosphere for the formation and play of children's creativity.
(2) Design activities to encourage children to create boldly 1. Cultivate children's creativity in educational activities.
Cultivating children's creativity in educational activities is mainly implemented in the following five areas: health, science, society, language and art. To cultivate children's creativity, we should pay attention to cultivating children's observation, attention, memory, thinking ability, imagination and language expression ability. Children's observation, attention, memory and language expression are general intelligence factors that need to be cultivated in various educational activities, so cultivating children's imagination and thinking ability is an aspect that needs to be paid attention to and strengthened in educational activities. In teaching, it is important for teachers to teach children some knowledge, but it is more important to teach children how to learn to be different.
Cultivate children's creativity in music activities: Music activities can develop children's creativity by perceiving music, composing lyrics and arranging dance movements. For example, if you are familiar with a song, ask for lyrics to inspire children to compose music according to the content and rhythm of the song. Dance and song performance can guide children to feel the music style, create corresponding actions according to the lyrics, and encourage children to boldly try different actions from others. Teachers should give children a hand at an appropriate time and make some demonstrations to stimulate their desire for creation and editing. And consider the actual level of children in their own class, help them open their minds and give specific guidance.
Cultivate children's creativity in art activities: in art activities, we let children draw with geometric figures as the prototype, and the circle can add the sun, alarm clock, watermelon and so on. Ellipse can be added to mouse, chicken, etc. And rectangles and triangles can form houses and pine trees. In painting activities, children can boldly imagine and create, instead of asking them to copy according to the model, they are encouraged to dare to imagine and add new content. When evaluating children's works, we should not look at them unilaterally, but pay attention to their creative consciousness and encourage children to create freely.
Cultivate children's creativity in literary activities: children spread their imagination wings and soar freely in literary activities. Activities such as looking at pictures, telling stories, writing poems and continuing to write stories have well cultivated and developed children's creativity. For example, when I was studying the fairy tale Seven-color Flower, I asked my children, if there is a seven-color flower that can realize their wishes, what do they want to achieve? I didn't expect children to think of dozens of answers. Please listen to their beautiful reverie: "I want to turn seven-color flowers into many toys and give them to children without toys in the world." "I want to turn seven-color flowers into many books with all the knowledge on them, so that I can become the smartest person." "I want to turn the seven-color flower into a spaceship, so I can travel to the moon!" ..... It is not difficult to see that children's creativity is exciting because they are curious about knowledge and different ideas and emotions. Teachers have cultivated children's innovative ability and creative ability in such activities, and the activities have been carried out in a colorful way, which has been welcomed by children.
(3) Developing children's creative games in games is an activity for children to imitate social life purposefully and consciously, and it is also a special form for children to reflect real social life under their own conditions.
Games are the main activities in early childhood, which are conducive to children's creative development. In games, teachers do not easily interfere with children's activities, but guide and encourage children to play games independently and innovatively. For example, we use corner games, role games and structural games to stimulate children's creative consciousness. Teachers can often ask children some enlightening and hypothetical questions: if you are in a room with only a big mirror and no door, how do you get out? What if there is no food that customers want in the delicious snack shop? Are there aliens on the moon? This allows children to solve problems through their own imagination and thinking, and also allows children to have unique ideas. Often consciously stimulate children to think from multiple angles and stimulate their enthusiasm for independent participation in creative activities. Another example is learning to braid hair in the living area of regionals. The teacher drilled holes in both ends of the semi-circular cold drink box, and then prepared beautiful ribbons and thick ropes, so that the children could tie the ropes while watching the pictures drawn by the teacher, and braid their own braids and bows. In the process of this game, children should not only observe the chart carefully, but also leave room for their own creation. Cultivate children's creativity in the process of using both hands and brains.
Teachers should create opportunities and guide children to be willing to cooperate and be good at creation. In daily life, educational "opportunities" are everywhere. The cultivation of children's creativity should permeate all aspects of daily life. Teachers should grasp everything that happens around children that can arouse children's thinking, imagination and interest, so that children's inner creative impulse can be fully released. For example, one morning, several children were observing the natural corner. Suddenly, a child shouted, "Look, Miss Li, this radish looks like an old man!" " "I walked over and saw a radish with some roots, which looked a bit like a human figure in a natural corner, much like a bearded grandfather. So, I had a brainwave and said to other children, "Let's have a look, children. What are other radishes like? "So, the children watched carefully and said," Teacher, look, it looks like a mouse! """Teacher, carrots are like lanterns." "Teacher, I see a white radish doll with long hair." Children spread their imagination wings and give full play to their imagination in the vast space of free imagination. Even the children who don't like to make noise at ordinary times are crying in surprise at the moment. I smiled and said, "Do you know why radishes have different colors and shapes?" "It was born by different radish mothers" and "The more water you drink, the bigger it gets". The child is full of whimsy. The children's curiosity inspired me, so I organized a series of activities with the theme of "radish", such as: cognitive activity "an interesting radish family", talking and doing "pickled radish and sweet shredded radish", language activity "radish is back" and art activity "radish transformation". Because of children's interest, the children in the whole series of activities are full of interest and input, and actively explore and create in every activity. This activity gave me great inspiration: creation comes from life, and every little thing can be the source of "creation".
(4) Inspire parents to pay attention to the cultivation of children's creativity. In fact, the creativity of many children is widely displayed in the family, but the bud of this development is sometimes ignored by parents. Therefore, we should always publicize the theory of early childhood education to parents, introduce the knowledge and methods of early childhood education development, and let them know that creating a good family atmosphere has a great relationship with the formation and play of creativity. We should encourage children to study and explore creatively, and we should recognize and affirm bold questioning and innovation, so that children's budding creative expression has sufficient room for development. Curiosity is one of the psychological characteristics of children. They often show strong interest in new things around them, love to ask questions, have strong curiosity and like to explore. Strong inquiry spirit and behavior are the forerunner of creativity, and parents should protect and support their children's curiosity and inquiry behavior. There is a real case: a painter in Guangxi left the studio to receive visiting guests while painting for the National Day exhibition. Out of curiosity and performance, the child used a brush to draw a few strokes on his father's upcoming painting, which ruined an excellent work. The father did not punish the child, but saw the budding of the child's creation from the child's performance, thus providing the child with the conditions for learning and creation. Finally, the child made amazing progress in art. The great inventor Edison had more than 65,438+0,000 inventions. In Edison's childhood and adolescence, his mother's protection and support for his exploration activities had a great relationship with his later achievements. Therefore, it is particularly important for parents to pay attention to the cultivation of children's creativity.
Creative development also needs rich knowledge as the foundation. Parents should pay attention to providing their children with excellent children's books and various audio-visual materials, especially taking them to nature and guiding them to discover, observe and explore, so as to enrich their knowledge, sprout their curiosity and cultivate their creativity. You can also recommend good books such as Parent-child Creative Games and 365 Cases of Creative Education to parents to provide reference materials and specific operational contents for parents to implement creative education at home.
After nearly a year of continuous practice, the cultivation of children's creativity has achieved initial results. The children in the class become curious and active. They don't accept all the knowledge given by the teacher, and sometimes they put forward their own opinions and ideas. It is very gratifying that children are more active in exploring scientific activities, especially literary activities and painting activities. Although children's creativity can only be described as "the bud of Xiao He", I believe that as long as they are properly cultivated, their creative potential is endless.