Research On Children's Constructive Play Behavior Effected By Giving Ways Of Constructive Play Materials

Constructive play has positive influence on pre-school children's cognitive capabilities, aesthetic judgment, body-building and other non-intelligence aspects. Constructive play materials are not only the materialistic support for constructive play, but also influence the features and content of constructive play. This study aims to investigate the current situation of kindergarten's organization and application of constructive play and concerning materials that have been used, and analyze the possible influences over pre-school children exerted by the different giving ways of wooden blocks, plastic blocks and supplementary constructive play materials.The survey of and face-to-face talks with 234 kindergarten teachers in Shanghai City find that with the deepening of kindergarten's comprehensive course reform and the surge of such educational form as the establishment of activity zones, there is a decline of structural games in kindergartens. It seems that the giving of constructive play materials in kindergartens is less scientific, which is shown by the fact that plastic blocks outnumber wooden blocks, colored blocks outnumber single-color ones, and the supplementary materials are usually less-structured materials. This study features a kindergarten in Shanghai that is typical of its constructive play, and then makes an observation of children's different play behaviors under different giving ways of constructive play materials. The result shows that single-color constructive play materials are more beneficial for children's development. The wooden blocks that are easy to collapse and rebuild have distinctive functions in children and different supplementary materials with different levels of structures have different values in constructive play for children at different ages.The study therefore suggests that kindergartens should arrange a particular period of time for children's constructive play. When constructive play materials are given, consideration should be given not only to children's preferences, but also to the potential values of materials to children. The colored materials given to senior pre-school children must be several times more than those single-color ones. The structural materials must be given in an individualized way and supplementary materials in a spiral way. Moreover, the researchers also put forward some specific suggestions to producers of structural materials.