NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION IN PRE-SCHOOL GROUP: THE EXPERIENCE OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Over the past decades, the pre-school and primary educations get more and more attention in Lithuania. It is emphasized to ensure the child’s active participation in education (learning) process and to seek qualitative education of the child. The daily changing world requires constantly stimulate children’s curiosity, help them to survive the joy of discovery and gain knowledge. The project activity – is one of the most effective methods of pre-school education. During the project in the nursery – kindergarten, a lot of opportunities for children’s cognitive activity were provided by trips: children had the possibility to observe, explore, fix the results of observations and compare them with their friends and finally draw conclusions. The activities were consistently complemented with the variety of educational backgrounds, and different activities promoted children’s interest in nature, its phenomena, the surrounding environment, thus created the favorable conditions for a variety of ways to develop the social and nature protection needs, children’s self-expression and creativity, and most importantly – to be active participants in the activities. The project “Gamtos takeliu keliaukime kartu” (Go together through nature paths) was very interesting for children and received a good evaluation of their parents. Keywords: project method, natural science education, pre-school education.