Using A Value Tree In Early Childhood Education

Values ​​are fundamental in early childhood education. For this reason, teachers are not only aware of language development in childhood, but also of encouraging autonomy, developing communication skills, promoting kindness and sharing guidelines for coexistence. Some fun resources can help children achieve this. Among them we have the value tree.

When it comes to early childhood education, we refer to children up to six years. This is an ideal age group for working with the value tree.

Thanks to this tool , they will be able to understand the meaning of values, what they are for and those that are important to them.

The three parts of the value tree in early childhood education

Although you can work with the value tree in many different ways, you must follow three different parts for this resource to have the desired effect.

The important thing is that while the children make this tree, all the children take an active part in it. In this way, in addition to working with values, they will also discover collaboration.

1. Behavior and values

The first part of creating the value tree is to explain the concepts of behavior and values ​​to the children. Remember that many children do not know what creativity, honesty or empathy is, for example.

Although they are probably familiar with some values, such as friendship or respect, it is quite normal to find that they are not aware of most of them. However, this does not mean that they can not carry them out in practice. That’s why you need to explain what they are.

A good way to do this is by giving examples of different values. Since all children love stories, we can adapt them (or use existing ones) to cope with a certain value. You can also use a short video if the value you want to address is a little difficult to understand. In this connection, the short film The Hedgehog (2013) may be a good alternative.

2. Identify the values ​​behind behavior and attitudes

Now that children have a first idea of ​​what values ​​are, especially those that were new to them, it is time to identify the values ​​through different behaviors and attitudes.

To do this, you can also use short films. To make it more fun and interesting for the kids, you can divide them into groups.

Pictures are also great resources to help children identify values. Each picture must be linked to a value, and the children must try to identify as many values ​​as they can. Finally, you can use stories, as children usually put a lot of emphasis on them and they help them understand values ​​much better.

3. Build the value tree

Once you have completed the two previous steps, it is time to build the value tree. To do this, all groups must place the pictures of the values ​​they have identified on the table.

Then the children must classify the values ​​from most to least important. This is an interesting activity, as they will need to work together on the order in which to put them. Each child will probably have a different point of view on this.

After that , the children must put the most relevant values ​​on the upper branches of the tree (which they have already drawn together with the help of the teacher). After that, they must place those they consider least important on the lower branches.

This is a great activity to help group discussions and to help them explain why they think some values ​​are more important than others. You can also use this exercise to develop activities around specific values, such as tolerance.

The value tree is a complete activity in early childhood education

In short, the value tree is a very comprehensive activity that you can customize. You can do it as a group and also individually. However, we do not recommend using it individually to begin with, if you have not already worked on it.

The interesting thing is that despite the fact that the value tree is a very useful tool in early childhood education, parents can also do this activity at home if they wish. It is an engaging activity that will help young children understand that behavior represents values ​​and principles.