Walking into the second kindergarten of Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, it is like being in a southern courtyard. In front of the gray-and-white main building, lush greenery spreads along the colorful walkway.
On the walls of staircases, corridors, and classrooms, you can see children's drawings everywhere. "This one was painted by the child with ink, that one was made by the child with plasticine, and this one is a leaf painting made by the child picking up fallen leaves and skillfully matching them. Zhang Yutao, the director of the park, told reporters.
Zhangye Binhe New Area has beautiful natural scenery and full of greenery. The second kindergarten in Ganzhou District stands here quietly, exuding vigorous vitality.
In 2014, the second kindergarten of Ganzhou District, which was rebuilt in Binhe New District, was officially enrolled, and Zhang Yutao served as the principal.
In the early stages of the construction of the new park, it is inevitable that there will be difficulties. How to make a new garden as warm as home?How can children's needs be cleverly integrated with architectural design?Faced with many problems that need to be solved urgently, Zhang Yutao and his colleagues read a large number of professional books and systematically learn the new standards of high-quality kindergartens.
After careful consideration, under the guidance of the "3-6 years old children's learning and development guide" and other documents, Zhang Yutao decided to start from the aspects of training goals, environmental creation, education rules, and the purpose of running a kindergarten, and put forward the idea of "green education" that is close to nature, caring for life, and respecting children, and clarified the goal of running a kindergarten with science and truth, humanity and goodness, and art and sports.
In this way, the second kindergarten in Ganzhou District is like a seed, slowly germinating and growing into a big tree. In a city full of high-rise buildings, Zhang Yutao and her teachers have created an ecological campus for children where they can "see the mountains and see the water". This kindergarten, which had been closed for 8 years due to the adjustment of the layout, was reborn.
Think while you practice. Adhering to the concept of "green education", Zhang Yutao and the teachers continuously optimized the layout, rebuilt the hardware facilities in the park, and divided the courtyard into three areas: living activity area, natural ecological area and outdoor activity area. In the ecological botanical garden, children enjoy the fun of labor in spring and summer, flowers in spring and summer, and fruits in autumnIn the animal farm, children live in harmony with animalsThere are also well-designed grape corridors, gardens, micro-landscape areas, and gourd baby home ......The kindergarten is gradually becoming a green paradise for children.
Relying on the natural and flexible environment of the kindergarten, Zhang Yutao led the teaching and research team to effectively integrate the unique natural ecological environment with outdoor independent games, forming a distinctive "three autonomy and four interaction" independent game courses.
"Three autonomy" means free choice, independent development, and spontaneous communication, and "four interactions" means that children interact with the environment, materials, peers, and teachers, so that children can learn to think and improve their abilities in the game.
Nature is a living textbook. Zhang Yutao integrates natural ecological education into all aspects and links of early childhood education, and sets up rich environmental education ecological courses, such as through fruit picking activities in the park, so that children can perceive the natural laws of flowers blooming and falling, growing and fruiting while being grateful for the gifts of nature, so that the natural ecology can move towards educational ecology and improve the effectiveness of kindergarten education.
In addition, Zhang Yutao also actively enhances the cultural soft power of the kindergarten and thickens the cultural connotation of the kindergarten. Under her leadership, the kindergarten has carefully built the party building brand of "Red Candle Education Pioneer and Green Child's Heart" to promote the deep integration of party building and education protection. In 2018, the second kindergarten in Ganzhou District was rated as a provincial demonstration park, and in 2022, it was identified as a "pilot kindergarten" by the Gansu Provincial Department of Education.
Combined with the fact that there are many transferred teachers and insufficient professional ability in the park, Zhang Yutao adheres to the people-oriented, leads the professional growth of teachers with "menu-style" precision training, organizes subject leaders to design teacher training projects, and carries out garden-based training such as picture book reading, scientific exploration, traditional culture education, and festival theme activities, so as to guide teachers to be educators with warmth and feelings, and encourage teachers to grow in learning, accumulate in practice, and improve in research.
I hope that every child who comes here can enjoy the joy of growing up under the nourishment of love and sunshine. Looking at the children playing happily on the playground, Zhang Yutao's eyes were full of tenderness.
China Education News, December 31, 2023, page 1
Author: Zheng Pengsheng, reporter of this newspaper.