Play as the main activity of preschool children

Play as the main activity of preschool children

 For children, one of the main activities is play. The child lives by playing. Play is an independent activity in which children actively interact with peers. Children playing are united by a common goal, common experiences that contribute to the formation of personality. In the pedagogical process, play is used as the most effective means for solving many educational problems. The game takes place in the process of development and correction of cognitive abilities, personal qualities, spatial and temporal orientations. Play is not a way of expelling excess energy, but a form of developing the free manifestation of personality. Play is a type of activity that controls development, in which not only the child’s personal qualities are formed, but also his attitude towards activities and people. [1, p.22]

We can also consider play as the main form of self-affirmation and life of preschoolers. In her works, A.P. Usova emphasized the most important function of the game, pointing out that games provide an opportunity to organize not only a certain moment in life, but also to cultivate independence, activate the passive, and provide the opportunity to act as a leader. In the game, a child gains certain experience, the opportunity to apply it in his activities, gains some knowledge and skills, can choose the theme of the game and develop a plot on this topic, can choose partners who are impressed by his type and temperament, those with whom he enjoys communicate.

I have repeatedly observed how a child sincerely perceives the game, how he lives in the game, how he cries and does not leave the game. However, in order for a child to be able to play enthusiastically and independently, he needs to be helped to learn how to play, learn to imagine and fantasize, manipulate with toys and substitute objects. As A.V. Zaporozhets noted, a child of primary preschool age needs to be helped to learn some ways of playing reality, learn to use toys, acquire the ability to act out well-known plots, learn to obey and follow the rules of the chosen game. If a child has a need, motivated by an adult, to carry out play actions and all conditions have been created for this (toys, materials, substitute objects with which children can realize this need), then the play process becomes meaningful and interesting.

While playing, the child’s emotional state improves, which is very important during the period of adaptation of children of primary school age to the conditions of kindergarten; he receives great pleasure from the game, which balances his psyche and improves his physical health.

When working with children of primary preschool age, teachers face certain tasks:

a) Relieve emotional and muscle tension, teach children to consciously perceive their own emotions - feelings and experiences - as well as understand the emotional state of others;

b) Develop skills of constructive communication with adults and peers, teach methods of successful social interaction;

c) Correct personal characteristics by stimulating the mental, emotional and psychomotor development of the child in their unity.

These tasks are solved through the main type of activity, through the play activity of the preschooler. Children need to be involved in games, to promote the development of game plots that reflect the surrounding reality and the life of the child. The games show that the baby knows what is dear to him, and develops the ability to fantasize and speak. Children learn, in accordance with the chosen role, to come up with a simple plot, build simple buildings, and independently select toys based on the theme of the game. [3, p.36]

When working with three-year-old children, you must:

- animate a game character who, during the lesson, will act as the child’s partner when completing the task and in the subsequent game;

‒ use various plots to encourage children to more complex ways of constructing a game, the transition from conditional objective actions to role-playing behavior;

- carry out the “transformation” of some objects into others, use substitute objects, etc.

In the daily routine of a preschooler, there is not much time for independent play activities, but children play constantly, play out all types of activities carried out during the day, both in kindergarten and at home. At first, already known plots are used with the kids, for example, “pretend” to bring tea, tasting the “tea” and offering to “cool it” as if it were hot, then it turns out that the tea is not sweet - you need to put sugar in the cup... this is how the plot begins with already familiar ones actions that the child repeatedly repeats with pleasure. They play out stories with pleasure with a doll - bathing, dressing, giving tea, the doll is sick, subsequently several stories are combined together, the course of the game develops, in which the teacher advises, guides and prompts. Initially, the teacher takes an active part in all games, gradually transfers the leading role to the children, promotes independence, the ability to independently build a plot and develop it.

The teacher has an active influence on the choice of the theme of the game in various ways, this could be the selection of certain toys - dishes arranged together according to purpose (dining room, tea), according to color scheme, size, a doll with clothes that are easy to put on and take off can create a desire to play “family” "; the presence of various types of building materials and animal figures can encourage the development of the plot of building pens for animals, and if you add various cars, it will be possible to build garages, etc. Including a child in a game organized by an adult is much easier than teaching him to choose a certain one on his own theme and develop the plot. The path to developing children's play should not lie through edification and suppression of children's initiative; play cannot be replaced by “action according to instructions.”

The most effective areas of work with children of primary preschool age are those that involve the active, jointly played activity of the child himself. Such activity allows him to externalize the objects of self-expression. And a child’s self-expression is a way of self-knowledge and self-development. While playing, the child’s emotional state improves, he receives great pleasure from the game, which balances his psyche and improves his physical health.

Fradkina F.I. said: “The game must be taught especially in very early childhood - this should be stated quite boldly. But you can teach in different ways. You cannot build a standard - a model that will result from the development of the plot, and impose it on a child. First of all, it won’t work, and if it does, it won’t be a game - the game will turn into an activity.” Preschool children need time to “enter” the game, so there is no need to rush them and encourage them to new actions if they have not mastered the previous ones, otherwise this leads to fatigue and an explosive situation. During the game, it is necessary to strive to ensure that the child is able to feel joy from his activity, and, importantly, from the result of his activity. A.P. Usova wrote: “Every game, if the child is capable of it, puts him in a position where his mind works vividly and energetically, his actions are organized...”

In order for the baby to grow up not only healthy, but also smart and capable, it is recommended to play with the baby literally from the moment of birth, attracting his attention to surrounding objects, teaching him to perform basic play actions “where are the ears, hands, eyes, nose, cheeks?”, by showing actions with objects, eventually suggesting the plots of games, then answering children's questions, assistance in drawing, building structures from cubes.

Ushinsky K.D. wrote “A game for a child is not a game, but a reality, it is a universal and inalienable right of a child.” For younger preschoolers, independent and organized observation of the work and everyday activities of older children and adults plays a huge role in the development of children's games. Usually, the observation is structured in such a way that the focus of attention is on the person or object being observed: the driver brought food to the kindergarten, the janitor cleans the area, the nurse examines the children, etc. Such observations help to move from playing with an object to a game in which the child plays a specific role. Children need to be shown how they can use the acquired knowledge in the game, translating it into the language of the game - highlight and distribute roles, clarify their actions according to the chosen role, think about what toys and objects are needed for this game, a sample of drawing up the plot of the game is offered.

The direct emotionality of an adult, a trusting attitude towards children, and an attitude towards toys as partners helps to sincerely captivate the child, helps to immerse children in the atmosphere of the game, and focus on the process of the game itself. Children must feel the sincere attitude of an adult towards them, then it will be possible not only to properly guide the game, but also to find a way to the child’s heart. In no case should you allow such a formulation as “Look carefully at how I play now, and then you yourself will play the same way...”. If one of the children remains completely indifferent to what is happening, he needs to be involved, offered to provide all possible assistance, “rock the doll, bring her tea, check if it’s hot? Or bring the missing bricks to build a garage or castle.

Even very young children notice the attitude of adults towards both toys and children, and then copy them, copy gestures, words, actions. Imitation becomes a playful action and gradually develops into the game itself. The plot borrowed from the teacher becomes its own, can expand and grow from the plot - the model, other toys and actions from personal relationships and experience can be added. The wider the circle of communication with older children and adults, the more information the child receives from the outside world, from the life around him, the richer the child’s games, the wider his active vocabulary. During the game itself, you can clarify and expand the acquired knowledge, complicate the content of the game, develop imagination, thinking, and enrich your vocabulary.

In younger preschoolers, specifically imaginative thinking predominates; in independent play, the child takes on a certain image, he imagines himself as a car, a kitten, a puppy, an airplane - most of all he is interested in the external side of play actions, the connection with the intention of the game is not always traced. A toy is the organizing beginning of a game; small children play with a toy; a toy can also be a partner; active action with a toy develops the imagination. When a child sees a toy, a desire arises to manipulate it, and both an idea and a plot arise. A child sees a car - he needs to go somewhere, he sees cubes - he needs to load the cubes onto the car and take them away, he sees a cup - he needs to make tea, he sees a doll - he needs to give the doll some tea. In the process of a child’s play activity with toys and objects, imagination and fantasies are manifested, and often what is desired is presented as reality. Children's fantasies can arise in certain situations. Kids enjoy playing with substitute objects. (Once the children were asked to put away the cubes, one child did not take the cubes out of his pockets, and when asked: “Why didn’t he put them away?” he answered, “There are no cubes, these are a phone and a smartphone”). Children can transfer actions from one object to another.

The correct selection of age-appropriate toys, as well as the proper arrangement of gaming material in the group room, activates play activity and promotes the development of independent play. Children of primary preschool age should have bright, medium and large household toys (dolls, bunnies, bears which are convenient to dress and undress, feed and put to bed, treat and push in a stroller, there should be playful household items: furniture, stove, irons, tablets, phones, hygiene items), etc. They should be located at the children’s eye level throughout the group room, zonally, so that children can play both individually and in small subgroups.

Kids gradually move from individual games to side-by-side games. All children have different perceptions, attention, memory, and thinking. At first, the teacher conducts simple group games “we’re going on a bus for a walk in the forest” - in the first game the teacher takes the role of the driver, the children are passengers, in subsequent games the roles can be distributed “in turns”, the kids should feel a sense of pleasure from the game and communication with other children. The plot of the game is taken from everyday life and should be familiar to young children. Children are attracted by kindness, active participation, and the desire to accept or invite the child into their play. In his work, the teacher relies on more active children, involving passive, “closed” ones in the game, paying more attention to those who adapt less well in the children's team.

The teacher must clearly remember that the level of development of the child’s play activity corresponds to the level of development of mental activity; if the child experiences difficulties in play communication, difficulties in verbal communication, closer attention to him is necessary. The main task of the teacher at this stage is to encourage children who have reached the level of “playing side by side” to play together, form and establish friendly contacts, achieve agreement in game situations, obey certain rules of the game, expand their active vocabulary, and enrich younger schoolchildren with knowledge .

Ultimately, there comes a time when systematized and generalized knowledge becomes necessary for the child’s full mental development.

The formation of play activity in young children is carried out as follows: a) teaching children to reproduce reality in a playful way, to reproduce familiar actions; b) proposal of the plot of the game, management of the game, which arises at the suggestion of the teacher and on the initiative of the children. Any coercion is categorically excluded from all techniques. The game should promote positive emotional experiences, bring joy and satisfaction; in the game the child asserts himself and develops.

Literature:

1. A. V. Zaporozhets “Game and development of the child.”
2. A. P. Usova “The role of play in the development of a child”
3. G. M. Lyamina “Education of Young Children”
4. N. S. Novoselova “Preschooler’s Game”
5. T. N. Doronova “Girls and boys 3–4 years old in the family and kindergarten”
6. T. B. Mazepina “Development of a child’s skills in games, trainings, tests”

Activities with Children

Preschool childhood is the period of initial formation of personality, the period of development of personal mechanisms of behavior. By the age of three, a child has come a long way in his mental development. He already moves freely in space, speaks well, understands the speech of others, is consciously guided (or also consciously not guided) by the demands and instructions of adults, shows initiative and independence.

The formation of internal mental life and internal self-regulation is associated with a number of new formations in the psyche and in the consciousness of a preschooler. L.S. Vygotsky believed that the development of consciousness is determined not by isolated changes in individual mental functions (attention, memory, thinking, etc.), but changing the relationship between individual functions. The central mental function that determines other processes in preschool age is memory. For a preschooler, thinking means remembering, that is, relying on one’s previous experience or modifying it. His thinking ceases to be visually effective; it is freed from the perceived situation, which makes it possible to establish connections between general ideas that are not given in direct sensory experience. When building his picture of the world, the child invents, invents, imagines.

Imagination is one of the most important new formations of preschool age. The preschooler creates an imaginary situation in the game, composes stories, and draws characters he has invented. During this period, the child does not just invent, he believes in his imaginary world and lives in an imaginary play situation. Emotional intensity of imaginary images and belief in imaginary

situation are one of the most important specific features of preschool age.

The most important new development of this period is also voluntary behavior, which can be defined as behavior mediated by norms and rules. Here for the first time the question arises of how to behave, that is, a preliminary image of one’s behavior is created. A pattern of behavior, which can be given in the form of a generalized rule, or a game role, or the actions of a specific person, acts as a regulator. The child begins to master and control his behavior, comparing it with this image, which becomes a model.

This comparison with a model is an awareness of one’s behavior and an attitude towards it from the point of view of this model. Awareness of one's behavior and the beginning of personal self-awareness is one of the main new developments of preschool age. An older preschooler begins to understand what he can do and what he cannot, he knows his limited place in the system of relationships with other people, he is aware not only of his actions, but also of his internal experiences - desires, preferences, moods, etc.

These are the main mental neoplasms of preschool age. All of them develop, manifest themselves and function in various types of activities of the preschooler.

The separation of a child from an adult at the end of early childhood, according to E.O. Smirnova, leads to a new relationship between the preschooler and him and to a new developmental situation. For the first time, the child moves beyond his family circle and establishes new relationships with the wider world of adults.

Communication between a preschooler and an adult becomes more complex and takes on new forms and new content. Thanks to speech development, the possibilities of communication with others are significantly expanded. Now the content of communication becomes extra-situational, that is, going beyond the perceived situation.

The leading motive for communication in this form is cognitive. The adult begins to appear before the child in a new capacity - as a source of new knowledge, as a person capable of resolving doubts and answering questions. This form of communication is characterized by the child’s desire to respect the adult. The adult's assessment becomes very important; Children begin to perceive any remark as a personal insult.

By the end of preschool age, a new and higher form of communication for preschool age is emerging - an extra-situational-personal form of communication. Unlike the previous one, its content is the world of people, not things. If at 4-5 years old the conversations between a child and an adult are dominated by topics about animals, cars, natural phenomena, then older preschoolers prefer to talk about rules of behavior, about themselves, about their parents, etc. The leading motives are personal.

Older preschoolers are characterized by a desire not just for the benevolent attention and respect of an adult, but also for his mutual understanding and empathy.

The social development situation of a preschooler is not limited to his contacts with surrounding adults. In addition to the real adults around the child, another one appears in the life and mind of a preschooler - an ideal adult.

The main need of a preschooler is to be a member of adult society, to live and feel together with adults. But a modern preschooler, of course, cannot really join adult life due to the complexity of this life and his limited capabilities. This is the contradiction in the social situation of a preschool child. The only activity that allows one to resolve this contradiction is play.

Preschool age is considered the classic age of play. During this period, a special type of children's play emerges and takes on its most developed form, which in psychology and pedagogy is called plot-role play. Role-playing play is an activity in which children take on the labor or social functions of adults and, in specially created playful, imaginary conditions, reproduce (or model) the lives of adults and the relationships between them.

In such a game, all the mental qualities and personality traits of the child are most intensively formed. Gaming activity influences the formation of arbitrariness of all mental processes - from elementary to the most complex. Thus, voluntary behavior, voluntary attention and memory begin to develop in the game. When playing, children concentrate better and remember more than when given direct instructions from an adult. The conscious goal - to concentrate, to remember something, to restrain impulsive movement - is the earliest and easiest to be identified by a child in play.

Play has a great influence on the mental development of a preschooler. Acting with substitute objects, the child begins to operate in a conceivable, conventional space. The substitute object becomes a support for thinking. Gradually, play activities are reduced, and the child begins to act internally, mentally. Thus, the game helps the child move on to thinking in images and ideas. In addition, in the game, playing different roles, the child takes on different points of view and begins to see the object from different sides. This contributes to the development of the most important human thinking ability, which allows you to imagine a different view and a different point of view.

Role play is critical to developing imagination. Game actions take place in an imaginary situation; real objects are used as other, imaginary ones; the child takes on the roles of absent characters. This practice of acting in an imaginary space helps children acquire the ability to creatively imagine.

According to the concept of children's play by D.B. Elkonin, role-playing play is an expression of the child’s growing connection with society - a special connection characteristic of preschool age. Role-playing expresses the child’s desire to participate in the life of adults, which cannot be realized directly due to the complexity of the tools and their inaccessibility to the child.

Research by D.B. Elkonin showed that role-play does not arise immediately. Only by the middle of preschool age does it reach a developed form. The prerequisites for the emergence of a role-playing game are:

■ separation of actions from the subject and their generalization;

■ the child’s use of unformed (not having clear

expressed function) objects as substitutes for others;

■ separation of one’s actions from the actions of adults and the emergence of personal actions of the child himself;

■ the child compares his actions with the actions of adults and identifies them;

■ the child’s reproduction in his actions of a chain of actions of adults, reflecting in the usual sequence the segments of their lives.

Many teachers and psychologists who have studied the play activity of preschoolers have noted that for the emergence and complication of a child’s play activity, guidance from educators is most essential. So N.M. Aksarina, based on her research, came to the conclusion that three conditions are necessary for the game to appear:

1) the presence of various impressions from the surrounding reality;

2) the availability of various toys and educational aids;

3) frequent communication of the child with adults.

The direct influence of adults on the child is decisive.

Play is social by origin and nature. Its occurrence is not associated with the action of some internal, innate, instinctive forces, but with the very specific conditions of a child’s life in society.

With a more thorough analysis of the gaming activity of D.B. Elconin noted that external conditions, although necessary, are nevertheless in themselves insufficient for the emergence of role-playing games. This requires a radical change in the relationship between the child and adults, which occurs during the transition from early childhood to preschool age.

Almost all authors who have described role-playing unanimously note that the reality surrounding the child has a decisive influence on it. Children play with what they perceive around them and what is especially attractive to them.

In order for preschool children to play, they must have vivid, emotionally charged ideas about the surrounding reality. At the same time, the entire reality surrounding the child can be conditionally divided into the world of objects and the world of human activity and relationships. Research by N.V. Koroleva showed the special sensitivity of children precisely to the sphere of human activity and relationships.

In a role-playing game, the main difference is plot and content.

The plot should be understood as that sphere of reality that children reflect in their games. The plots of the games are extremely varied. They depend on the era, class affiliation

children, their family life, geographical and industrial conditions directly surrounding them. According to D.B. El conina, the narrower the sphere of reality that children encounter, the narrower and more monotonous the plots of their games. He proposed dividing all plots of role-playing games in preschool age into three groups:

1) games with stories on everyday topics;

2) games with production plots;

3) games with socio-political themes.

Younger preschoolers recreate relationships in games in a very small number of plots. As a rule, these are games associated with the direct practice of the children themselves. Later, the reconstruction of human relationships becomes the main point of the game. In the game of children of middle preschool age, the actions performed are not repeated endlessly, but replace each other. In this case, actions are performed not for the sake of the actions themselves, but to express a certain attitude towards another person in accordance with the role taken. These relationships can also be played out with a doll that has received a certain role. The instrumental actions performed by a middle-aged preschooler are more condensed than those of younger preschoolers. In story-based games for middle-aged preschoolers, the main content is relationships between people. The detailed transmission of relationships between people in the game teaches the child to obey certain rules. Getting acquainted with the social life of adults through play, children become more and more familiar with the understanding of the social functions of people and the rules of relations between them.'

The content of role-playing play for older preschoolers is subject to the rules arising from the role taken on. Children of this age are extremely picky about fulfilling

rules

Some plots of children's games are found in both younger and older preschoolers. The development of plots goes from everyday games to games with production plots and, finally, to games with plots of socio-political events. This sequence, according to the scientist, is associated with the expansion of the child’s horizons and his life experience, with his entry into the increasingly deeper content of the lives of adults. The variety of game plots is determined by educational work with children.

Beyond the plot, D.B. Elkonin proposed to distinguish between the content of role-playing games. By the content of the game he understands what is highlighted by the child as the main point of adult activity, reflected in the game.

So, according to research by L.S. Slavina, the main content of the play of younger preschoolers is the performance of certain actions with toys, in which the actions of adults with objects are reproduced.

The game is completely different for older children. The use of the result of an action for another participant in the game (or for a doll replacing him) comes to the fore. Actions are performed by the child not for their own sake, but to achieve through them a certain relationship with another player in accordance with the role he has taken on. The main content is the relationships between people, whose roles the children take on. L.S. Slavina notes that the actions of children are extremely reduced and generalized, sometimes acquiring a conditional character; The older the children are, the more abbreviated and generalized their actions are.

Changes in the content of games can be identified not only by the nature of the actions, but also by how the game begins and what is the main cause of conflicts that arise between children. For younger children, the role is suggested by the object itself in their hands. If a child has a tube in his hands, then he is a “doctor,” if a thermometer, then he is a “nurse,” etc. The main conflicts between children arise over the possession of an object with which an action must be performed. Therefore, very often two drivers are driving at the same time, several doctors are examining the patient, and several mothers are preparing dinner. Hence the frequent change of roles associated with the transition from one subject to another.

For children of middle preschool age, the role is formulated before the game begins. And here the main quarrels arise over roles: who will be who. The relationship of people to each other comes to the fore. The action can be of a generalized nature, and its main content can be transferred to the expression of the attitude towards another person (driver to passengers, mother to daughter, counselor to conductor, etc.).

Finally, for older preschoolers, the main content of the game is obedience to the rules arising from the role taken on. Moreover, children of this age are extremely picky about how their playmates follow the rules. And here they mainly argue about “whether this happens or not” and, in addition, there is clearly criticism of the actions of the participants in the game.

Thus, the content of children's games develops from games in which the main content is the objective activity of people, to games that reflect relationships between people, and, finally, to games in which the main content is submission to the rules of social behavior and social relations between people.

Along with the increase in the variety of subjects, the

duration of games. Thus, the duration of play for three- to four-year-old children is only 10-15 minutes, for four- and five-year-olds

reaches 40-50 minutes, and for older preschoolers games can

last for several hours or even several days.

There are two types of relationships in the game - gaming and real. Game relationships reflect relationships in plot and role. Real relationships are the relationships between children as partners, comrades doing a common task. They can agree on the plot, the distribution of roles, and discuss questions and misunderstandings that arise during the game. In play activities, certain forms of communication between children arise. The game requires from the child such qualities as initiative, sociability, and the ability to coordinate his actions with the actions of a group of peers in order to establish and maintain communication.

Elements of communication appear very early, when children do not yet know how to build a detailed story game, but play individually - each on his own. Typically, during this period of play development, the child is focused on his own actions and pays little attention to the actions of the other child. However, from time to time, fed up with his own play, the baby begins to look at how another child is playing. Interest in a peer's game leads to attempts to establish certain relationships. The first forms of relationships are manifested in the child’s desire to get closer to another child, to play next to him, in the desire to give up some space,

busy for his game, in a timid smile given to another at the moment when the children meet their eyes. Such light contacts do not change the very essence of the game: each child plays on his own, observing “distance discipline” as much as possible.

At the next stage (at three to four years), the child begins to communicate more intensively with his peers. He is actively looking for reasons for joint activities and for establishing relationships. The duration of communication in this case depends on the extent to which the child has mastered the playful use of objects and the ability to create and implement a play plan.

During the period when play consists only of performing the most basic actions with toys (rolling a car by a rope, pouring sand from a bucket), the child’s interaction with a peer is short-term. The content of the game does not yet provide grounds for sustainable communication. At this stage, children can exchange toys and help each other; One can; rush to help another correctly position the overturned car, and the other, correctly understanding his impulse, will kindly accept this service.

With the development of gaming skills and the complication of game plans, children begin to engage in longer-term communication. In playing together, children learn the language of communication, mutual understanding and mutual assistance, and learn to coordinate their actions with the actions of others.

Bringing children together to play together helps to further enrich and complicate the content of games. Each child's experience is limited. He is familiar with a relatively narrow range of actions performed by adults. In the game there is an exchange of experience. Children learn from each other and turn to adults for help. As a result, games are becoming more diverse. The complication of the content of games leads, in turn, not only to an increase in the number of participants in the game, but also to the complication of real relationships, and to the need for clearer coordination of actions.

With the development of the ability to create a detailed plot plan and plan joint activities, the child comes to the need to find a place among the players, establish connections with them, understand the desires of the players and balance their own desires and capabilities with them.

The above allows us to conclude that the central point of any game is the reproduction of the activities of adults and their relationships. This entry into human relationships and mastering them is the essence of the game. This is what determines the great influence that play has on the development of the entire personality of a preschool child, on the development of all aspects of his mental life.

Report on the topic: “Game activity”

In order to achieve a game that is genuine, emotionally rich, including the intellectual solution of game problems, the teacher needs to comprehensively manage its formation, namely: purposefully enrich the child’s practical and gaming experience, gradually transferring it into a conventional game plan, and during independent games, encourage preschoolers to creatively reflect reality.

N. M. Askarina, summarizing pedagogical techniques for managing play in early childhood, for the first time clearly showed that for the emergence and development of play, it is necessary, firstly, to provide children with play material that actualizes their impressions of the environment, and secondly, to conduct training appropriate to the game .These provisions formed the basis of a comprehensive method of managing the game.

2. Features of play activities of children of primary, middle and senior preschool age.

Scientific analysis of play activity shows that play is a child’s reflection of the world of adults, a way of understanding the world around him.

In the child's first games, the leading role of adults is clearly evident. Adults “play with” the toy. By imitating them, the child begins to play independently. Then the initiative to organize the game passes to the child. But even at this stage, the leadership role of adults remains. As the child develops, the game changes. In the first two years of life, the child masters movements and actions with surrounding objects, which leads to the emergence of functional games. In functional play, unknown properties of objects and ways of operating with them are revealed to the child. So, having opened and closed the door with a key for the first time, the child begins to repeat this action many times, trying to turn the key at every opportunity. This real action is transferred to the game situation. Constructive games are more challenging. In them, the child creates something: builds a house, bakes pies. In constructive games, children understand the purpose of objects and their interaction. Functional and constructive games belong to the category of manipulative games, in which the child masters the surrounding objective world and recreates it in forms accessible to him. Relationships between people are conceptualized in story games.

The independent play activity of a child of the second and partly the third year of life takes place in the form of plot-based play. The child plays “mother-daughter”, “shop”, taking on a certain role. Plot-role-playing games appear at three to four years of age. Until this age, children play nearby, but not together.

The fourth year of life is a crucial period in the formation of play activity, a fundamentally new stage in its development in connection with the transition from plot-based play to plot-role play. Story-based role-playing games involve collective relationships. The psychological characteristics of games change: its content creates the basis for communication and joint actions of children. They become interested not only in the features and purpose of objects, the functions of the people around them, but also in their interactions and relationships. Of course, the inclusion of a child in group games depends on the conditions of upbringing. Children raised at home engage in group games with greater difficulty than children attending kindergarten. In collective story games, which become longer by the age of six or seven, children follow the intent of the game and the behavior of their comrades. Role-playing games teach children to live in a group. Gradually, rules are introduced into the games that impose restrictions on the behavior of the partner. Collective role-playing game expands the child’s social circle. He gets used to obeying the rules and requirements that are placed on him in the game: he is either the captain of a spaceship, or his passenger, or an enthusiastic spectator watching the flight. These games foster a sense of teamwork and responsibility, respect for fellow players, teach them to follow the rules and develop the ability to obey them. Using appropriate strategy and tactics in a story game with children of one age or another will allow them to develop appropriate gaming skills in a timely manner and will make the teacher a desirable partner in the game. In this capacity, he will be able to influence the theme of the game, the dysfunctional relationships between children, which are difficult to correct with direct pressure.