Preschooler's portfolio – Kindergarten and child

Attention! The article provides an example of a portfolio.

A preschooler’s portfolio is a folder in which the child’s talents, successes, and preferences are “collected.” Portfolios are increasingly required in preschool institutions. Children who do not attend preschool educational institutions, one way or another, become the heroes of the portfolio - in the popular series of photo albums “I was born, I am growing.”

Why do you need a preschooler's portfolio?

Parents have an ambivalent attitude towards portfolios. On the one hand, many consider this an unjustified waste of time and a useless undertaking: they say, if a preschooler has a bad portfolio, will he be expelled from the kindergarten or not accepted into school? Opponents of the portfolio argue their point of view by saying that a kindergarten should be involved in raising a child, regardless of his status, welfare or epistolary skills of the parents, but here it turns out to be some kind of paperwork.

Another camp encourages children to have portfolios. Parents understand the importance of drawing up a reference folder. Portfolios are often required to help teachers. Having learned from the portfolio what games the child likes to play, what toys he likes, what assignments he is most willing to carry out, the teacher will be able to correctly and competently build a line of behavior with the preschooler and help him quickly adapt to the team.

Having received from the teacher as homework to prepare a portfolio of a preschooler, you will have to remember and put together the main points associated with the child’s life: his preferences, hobbies, first creative works, photographs. In kindergarten, the portfolio will be supplemented with the most successful drawings and crafts, and at the graduation party you will receive back a folder with the child’s achievements.

The portfolio can be kept at home as memories of the glorious pre-school period. The portfolio may be asked to be brought to the primary school. Based on the data contained in the folder, teachers will form their own idea of the child and decide who is best to sit him with, what objects should be paid attention to - that is, by the time the baby arrives, the psychological basis for teaching in the classroom will be ready.

What is a portfolio and its functional purpose?

Portfolio (English portfolio - folder for documents) is a folder that gives an understanding of the activities of an organization or a specific specialist.

A portfolio for kindergarten is an original method of recording individual achievements, which helps to convey and organize important moments in the life of a student, his positive emotions, goals achieved in various types of life activities, and impressions of this. That is, everything that can give an individual and personal characteristic of the student and his successes. Today, drawing up a portfolio for a preschooler is a requirement of new standards and one of the components of the system for assessing a child’s preparation for school.

Having familiarized ourselves with the methodological literature, we can highlight a number of functions of the document:

Diagnostic – shows the child’s mental and physical growth over time.
Goal-setting – promoting a conscious process unfolding over time (what the child learns).
Content-based – detects and evaluates all types of work performed.
Motivational – rewards achieved results and stimulates the achievement of new goals.
Developmental – ensures the constancy of the learning and education process at this stage of life.
Socioformative – strengthens and develops the socio-psychological climate between children and adults.

What is included in a preschooler's portfolio

The portfolio reflects the child’s main indicators:

physical (height, weight, etc.),
skills (range of child's skills),
life (travel, hobbies, etc.).

There are a lot of portfolio options, but they all differ slightly from each other. As a rule, in the garden they say which sections must be present in the folder. Some pages may be assigned to sections as desired.

Stores sell ready-made templates that contain accompanying pictures and section names.

However, more and more parents prefer to prepare a portfolio themselves. Crafty moms manage to incorporate elements of scrapbooking and Photoshop skills and turn the folder into a real masterpiece.

Required pages in the portfolio:

General details of the child (full name, date of birth, city).
Contents of the portfolio (this sheet lists the sections of the portfolio).
Meet me (baby biography).
I'm growing (height and weight chart).
Photo from kindergarten.
My family (a separate page can be dedicated to each family member, or you can simply post a conditional family tree).
That's what I love (child's hobby).
How can I help (list of tasks that can be entrusted to a child).
My favorite books (listing of favorite authors and works).
My travels (photos from travel).
I dream (the child’s statements about his future profession, home, studies are recorded).
Gold pens (photo of crafts).
My friends.

Additional pages can be seasonal: for example, talk about how the child spent the winter, etc.; or include certificates received at various competitions.

The portfolio can be interestingly designed in the form of a multi-colored book, in which the child’s favorite cartoon characters are depicted against the background of the pages, for example.

Essay “My profession is a preschool teacher” for portfolio

Childhood exists at all

not to spite the teachers, it is a gift of nature

to a person so that he can eternally cognize the immensity.

Sh.A. Amonashvili

There are thousands of professions in the world, all of them necessary and interesting. But every person must choose the one that would please him and bring him pleasure. Choosing a profession is a very important step in the life of every person. It resembles the starting point in the route of future life; the more successful the choice is made, the more interesting, eventful and successful the path of life will be.

My profession is a kindergarten teacher. This profession makes me forget all my problems, always feel healthy, energetic and always be in the world of fairy-tale childhood.

Kindergarten is a wonderful world! Its inhabitants are amazing creatures! The kindest, most selfless, trusting, pure, simple soul of a child draws him into communication and into the desire to work with him. When working with children, time always seems to fly by. I have been working in kindergarten for two years and have never regretted my choice of profession. .

I am glad that I am a preschool teacher! After all, giving yourself to children, understanding them, finding joy in communicating with them, believing that each of them is an individual - these are the main components, in my opinion, of a real teacher. Every morning I rush to see my students with joy. I look forward to their arrival. After all, everyone needs to share with me, show what a beautiful picture they drew with mom and dad, where they went on the weekend and what they saw there. And I, in turn, need to make sure that their day is eventful, interesting, and educational. With them we learn to hold a pencil and brush correctly, learn songs and poems for the matinee, experiment, read, and act out fairy tales.

Working as a teacher, you understand that all children are individual, and you, as a teacher, must find the key to each child. And it is impossible to deceive them. They will always see everything. They will immediately understand how you feel about them: with or without love. And they will answer you the same. For me, my profession is an opportunity to constantly be in the world of childhood. You are especially aware of the importance of the teaching profession ,

when you see the children’s eyes wide open, greedily catching my every word, my glance and gesture; eyes ready to take in the whole world. Looking into these children's eyes, you understand that they need you, that you are the whole universe for them, that it is you who lay the sprouts of future characters, support them with your love, and give them the warmth of your heart.

The teacher must work creatively, apply new innovative technologies in his work, be energetic, talented, sociable, young at heart, create coziness, warmth and comfort for each child, and have high patience. Only then will the kindergarten be able to turn into “an island of happy childhood.”

The necessary qualities of a modern educator are patience, kindness, tolerance, well-readness, and erudition, because the educator has to work not only with children, but also with parents.

I try to treat my little charges the way I would like others to treat my children. In my work, I strive to plan the day so that children never get bored. The teacher has to play different roles: he is a teacher for children, who knows everything, teaches everything, and a playmate, and a second mother who will understand everything and help in difficult times.

I try to be a friend to children, to find my own approach to each, to understand the individuality of each, in order not only to give them new knowledge about life, but also to cultivate a positive attitude towards the world around them, towards themselves. And I hope that my students will grow up to be literate, educated and worthy people. After all, parents give children a start in life, but I, the educator, help them take the second step.

When working with children, I use a wide variety of directions and forms in my work. To turn my classes into an exciting creative process and interest the kids, I strive to use a toy more often in my work as a leader, turn on music, ask riddles, arrange a surprise moment, and also motivate children with artistic words. Children perk up and begin to take an active part in direct educational activities. I always try to talk to children politely and kindly and make sure that they communicate with each other in the same way.

I share the opinion of Jan Korczak that “children deserve respect, trust and friendship, I am pleased to be with them, in this clear atmosphere of affectionate feelings, cheerful laughter, first good efforts and surprises, pure, bright and sweet joys.”

And that’s why I chose a profession - a kindergarten teacher.,

because I like constant live contact with children, I absolutely love these kids, as well as the ability to be a versatile specialist. The psychological aspect is also very important. It is also necessary to find not only an individual approach to the child, but also to get along with the parents. Every day, meeting in the morning and saying goodbye in the evening, do not allow them to doubt for one second the safety and love of their children.

I want to end my essay with words B.

And Sukhomlinsky: “Our most important pedagogical tool is the ability to deeply respect the human personality in our pupil. With this instrument we are called to create a very gentle, subtle thing: the desire to be good, to become better today than yesterday. This desire does not arise on its own; it can only be nurtured.”

The nuances of creating a portfolio

If we recall the recent past, it turns out that we are all very familiar with the prototype of a portfolio - a folder with the inscription “personal file”. True, not only achievements are entered there, but also all the children’s “sins,” which is completely unacceptable, because fixing failures develops a whole set of complexes in the child. A portfolio has the opposite task - to develop a sense of self-confidence, adequate self-esteem (neither too high nor too low).

Creating a portfolio together with parents using ready-made templates or developing your own pictures helps strengthen psychological closeness within the family. A common activity, as well as time spent together, will give the child confidence in your interest in his affairs, and therefore their importance. This supports children's motivation for creativity, sports, and study.

There are a few general rules recommended for all portfolio templates:

Creating a portfolio for kindergarten should be interesting for the child himself. At 3-4 years old, children already perfectly understand the purpose of the achievement dossier and are able to select the necessary materials themselves. If for some reason the child refuses to place one of the works in the portfolio, reserve this right for him;
It is necessary to clearly formulate the purpose of the portfolio: collection of achievements in only one type of activity (sports, drawing), a general overview for a certain age period (by kindergarten groups), a thematic selection. The last version is usually prepared on the instructions of the teacher and contains materials on a narrow topic - a pet, my family, etc.;
The structure of a portfolio for a kindergarten, that is, the number of sections, is determined by parents or a teacher, because a preschooler cannot yet collect and systematize information in such volumes. The collection itself occurs at certain intervals - monthly, for example. This makes it more convenient to track the dynamics of the development of the child’s abilities.

Portfolio types

Materials can be different - certificates, crafts, drawings and much more. All of them should be included in the portfolio, subject to ease of viewing and storage. From this point of view, photographs are good - they record all achievements, memorable moments, and do not take up much space. In general, technological progress has introduced variety into the usual templates; portfolios can be of several types:

Printed. The traditional form is an A4 format folder containing various materials. When compiling a portfolio for a kindergarten, you can use a regular purchased folder with files, but it is better to print out several different colorful templates, the pictures on which correspond to the section: drawing, music, sports, participation in collective creativity. Pages with neutral pictures are suitable for telling stories about family, dreams, and hobbies. Templates can not only be placed in a folder, but also arranged as a filing cabinet;
Coloring. To involve your child in working on a portfolio, make several pages in the form of black and white drawings and ask the child to carefully color them;
Electronic. This type of systematization, which is relatively new for kindergartens, is very interesting for preschoolers, because working on it is always exciting, and the result is invariably bright. It is possible to add interesting effects, videos, and slide shows. Young parents also find the process of creating an electronic portfolio the most convenient.

And yet, everyone’s technical capabilities are different, so the classic printed portfolio remains the most popular option. And pictures drawn by the child himself will add individual notes to your creation.