Educate children through direct experiences | Part 4

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The direct experiences are carried out in order that the children are not mere spectators, but can act on the explored reality. Through direct contact, children awaken their curiosity and feel the need to know, investigate and satisfy their doubts.

Learning through direct experiences can be done within the school in class activities, as well as on field trips. Each experience provides children with a variety of opportunities to manifest their abilities, gaining a concrete knowledge of the world around them.

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Direct experience at the train station.

It is a very interesting educational experience, as well as motivating since children learn, imitate and reproduce what they see in the world around them.

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Focusing on the investigation of the social space, the needs of people and the role played by trains as a means of public transportation.

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Function of the educator before going to the tour of the train station.

Talk with the children about the movement of the train station, letting them know that they must keep a safe distance from the trains, and that there are signs that are easy to visualize, so that there is no problem.

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It is important to inform about the rules, the use and care of this means of transport, as well as the train station in general.

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Objectives of direct experience.

• That the child begins to establish relationships between the functions that meet social spaces and the uses that people make of them.
• Encourage interest in children, in relation to the social environment.
• That the appropriate value be given to passenger transportation.

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Learning and fun through activities.

This experience for children contributes to the development of the personality, favoring their learning.

Activities to execute:

• Read the posters with the names of the station, and find out where they come from and where the trains go.
• Observe what happens when a train arrives or departs, in addition to being alert to the sounds that announce arrival and departure.
• Observe the changes and the permanence through time in the station.
• You must interact with the ticket office, the turnstiles and the people who work at the station.
• Draw a map of the station, locating in it, all its dependencies, such as: ticket office, ticket vending machines, access turnstiles, stairs, among others.
• You should be encouraged to discover historical data in the station, such as: a souvenir plaque or the day of its inauguration.
• Motivate to enter the box office and see the machines that print the tickets.

After all these fascinating activities for the children, you should take a walk with the students and with the supervisor of the staff in charge of the station.

Suggestion: You must visit the train station in an hour where there is enough movement, so that the observation is beneficial. However, avoid that there is an excess of people that could endanger the safety of children.

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Activities to be carried out at the school after the departure at the train station.

The teacher should talk with the children about what they think about the exit to the train station, and ask questions with respect to what they have learned and lived.

Questions:

• What function do the trains fulfill?
• How is the place and what things are there?
• What kind of machines are there in the place?
• What are the different types of jobs performed there?

Encouraging children to tell what they learned, can make the experience real in the classroom, encouraging them to interpret what happens at the station and exercise the functions of each employee.

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Greetings educators and motivators of education.