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Self-control could be defined as the capacity to be able to direct our own conduct in a desired direction, and from this point of view, it is related to practically any human quality.

A child from zero to six years old has not developed the self-control of his conduct, because in the first years he acts by impulse and following his immediate desires, he finds it hard to inhibit his conduct and when told "don’t do it" he will be disinterested or negative, to the point that many adults will think that it is an answer of deliberate disobedience. But this is not like that; it is only because his development does not yet allow him the voluntary control of his conduct.

So that the child manages to control his conduct in a voluntary way several acquisitions in the development of the psychological processes are needed, for example, the understanding of the adult language, which will help him to regulate his behaviour.

On the other hand, the incipient development of the will enables, in the second half of this period and almost finalizing it, a very important acquisition: the child learns to subordinate reasons, for example, if he wants to play he must first do his homework. This is a long process, in which first he fulfils what the adult says in order to please him, but where in fact there is no internalization yet of the necessity to do it for the benefit that this brings to him and the others. With a suitable education the child finally obtains this internalization, and then it is possible to talk about the existence of self-control.

It is necessary to work self-control to prepare the child to enter primary school, it is necessary to teach him that he has to wait for his turn in a queue, to teach him that everybody cannot speak at the same time. It is very important that he learns to prioritize and to fulfil some tasks and works over other more pleasant things for him, for example, play. He must also learn to listen attentively.

The self-control of the conduct can be worked in all the activities that the child carries out either in the school or at home, and every opportunity is good to do it.

ACTIVITY No 1
"THE YELLOW CHICK"

Summary of the activity: The first part of the activity consists of the narration of a story with pictures, later the children and the educator will talk about the story and finally they will play a building game.

Objectives: To develop in the children a basic knowledge on self-control of the conduct.

Procedures:
• Conversation
• Narration
• Practical Actions
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Text of the story and serialized pictures of its argument, construction games with wood or plastics blocks.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will narrate the story of "The yellow chick", with the help of serialized pictures of the argument to draw greater attention on the content. Pictures of the story will be shown.

"Daddy rooster ploughed the soil in the vegetable garden, Mummy hen was making an apron and both lived happily and content with their only son, the yellow chick."

"Yellow chick was happy and playful, so playful that he did not do any other thing than play and play... That morning he had gone away to peck worms and tiny bugs that lived in the shade of a very high tree, full of branches that raised near the house in which the family lived."

"The yellow chick pecked the naughty ants and the worms and the black caterpillars with their many pairs of legs, when a rabbit approached giving small jumps".

_”Do you want to play?” asked Yellow chick.

_“No, first I must do my homework” answered the rabbit.

The Yellow chick started to laugh, and said: “With such a beautiful morning you are not going to play!”

The Yellow chick started to laugh
and, showing his teeth to the air,
moustaches to the wind
the rabbit went away,
happy, happy.

On the other side of the paths that bordered the tree, the grunting plump pig came around. Poor pig, he could hardly walk because of his obesity. He was choked, the drops of sweat wet his cap and his jacket, his trousers and his books.

_”Where are you going to?” asked Yellow chick.

_”I’m going to look for food for my brothers” answered the pig, without stopping.

The chick started to laugh and said to him: “Don’t be so silly, it is a very good day to play.”

The chick laughed when the dog Flask rushed around. He came with his books and notebooks.

_”Where are you going, my friend?” asked the chick.

_”I’m going to school. I am going to learn, answered the dog with joy, at the same time that he wagged his tail as if he was greeting him; but Yellow chick this time did not start to laugh, nor did he return his the greeting.

They are going to do their homework, he said, they are going to look for the food that their mother asked them, they are going to school. Is it that nobody plays in this farm?

The dog that heard him said to him: “No, we all continue playing as always, but first it is necessary to make other things that are very important, each thing at its due time, later we will play.”

"Yellow chick turned green with rage, he was going to have a fit of fury, and to peck the dog when the air dragged a paper and he went to see how it moved."

"The paper was written with black letters. Yellow chick who did not know how to read or write, although he was old enough for that, started to peck the black letters as if these were ants or caterpillars."

"A dove that had seen everything from one of the branches of the tree, when seeing the desperation of the chick that pecked over and over the black outlines on the paper said to him:

_”No, small Yellow chick, those things that you are pecking are not ants nor tiny bugs, nor worms, nor caterpillars.

The chick, astonished, looked at his neighbour and asked her:

_”What are they, friend dove”

“Those figures that you peck and peck are letters written on the pages of a book. Don’t you know it?”

_”No, I did not know it.”

_”Of course not, if you have not learned it you cannot know them, the only thing you think about is playing, don’t you know that there are other things as important as to play?”

_”And where do we learn it?”

_”We learn it in the early childhood school.”

_”And how do we learn?”

_”We learn by studying. We learn by studying....in the early childhood school"

_”Then I will no longer be able to play but, I must go to the school”, said Yellow chick.

_”You do not have to stop playing, first you go to school, in the afternoon you come home, you go out to play for a while until your mother hen calls you, you have a shower, you eat and do your homework. You see, there is time for everything, because there are things that are done first and others later, the only thing you have to do is organize your time.”

Then the Yellow chick doubled the written sheet, and full of joy for having understood such an important thing, ran along the way towards the early childhood school.

2nd Part
The educator will ask the children the following questions:
What did you learn with this story?
How can you criticize the Yellow chick?
Why does someone in the story say that it is necessary to organize the time?
Do you organize your time? Explain how?
If you are eager to play, but you must first do a more important task, what do you do? Do you continue playing, or do you do the task?

The educator will summarize the activity emphasizing that the important thing is first to carry out our obligations and to play later or do what we want, organizing the tasks gives you time for everything and that one can not always do what one wants, that is why the Yellow chick did not know how to read.

"You will go very soon to the primary school and there, as big children, you will have to carry out other obligations and also play, but you must know that sometimes one is eager to do something, but one must leave it for later, because there are more important things to do first."

3rd Part
The educator invites the children to play a building game, and they construct the house, the hen house and Yellow chick’s early childhood school.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They knew how to critically analyze the conduct of the character of the story.
They needed help to critically analyze the conduct of the character of the story.
They understood that there are tasks that although we like them less, it is necessary to do them first.
They verbally expressed the intention to try to carry out their duties.

ACTIVITY No 2
"MY EARLY CHILDHOOD SCHOOL"

Summary of the activity: A festival titled "The early childhood school" will be held, with poetries and songs. The children will recite and sing, and after they will talk about the festival.

Objectives:
• To develop in the children knowledge of their obligations or duties.
• To stimulate in the children the fulfilment of their homework.
• To develop artistic abilities, reciting and singing.

Procedures:
• Reciting
• Singing
• Repetition
• Conversation

Material Resources: Poetry texts and songs, a cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator selects some poems and songs group and teaches them to the children, until they learned them through repetition. They can be recorded to reinforce the auditory memory. Later in the group they will select who will sing and recite them in the festival.

Song: Here the educator mentions a song.

Poetry: Here the educator mentions a poem.

2nd Part
It consists of the festival, for which an appropriate place in the outdoor area of the school will be selected, where the children can recite and sing what was learned, chairs will have to be located in circle for the public.

A child will play the role of presenter, and then the selected children will sing and recite their poems, according to the established program.

3rd Part
The educator invites all the children present in the activity so that they say what they thought of the festival and talk about the content of the poems and songs.

Did you like the activity?
Who wants to talk about the festival?
What did you think of the poems and the songs?
What is it suggested in the poems? And in the songs?
Do you agree with what was said?

The educator will summarize the festival with words of congratulations to the children for their good work and will remind them in his own words that, in their activities, they should give priority to their homework.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They knew how to analyze the message of the poems and songs.
They needed help to analyze the message of the poems and songs.
They felt stimulated by the contents of the poems and songs.
They made a good performance in the festival.

ACTIVITY No 3
"TO KNOW HOW TO TALK"

Summary of the activity: In the first part the educator will tell a story referred to the subject and later there will be a conversation, so that the children reach their own conclusions.

Objectives:
• To develop in the children the control of their conduct.
• To stimulate the learning of how to listen to others.

Procedures:
• Story
• Questions and answers
• Conversation
• Listening

Material Resources: Text of the stories, a cassette recorder with microphone or a camcorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator tells the following story:

“The night spread like a black rug, in which thousands of little lights shone, and underneath, between trees and shrubs the whistle of the crickets could be heard, and a very great noise produced by the prattle of a chicken, the cries of the crow, and the quacks of a pair of ducks that accompanied them in a single shout that bothered all the animals that slept.

Suddenly, with opened wings like a great fan appeared a white dove that landed on a tree that was all bristling with the row of the small group of birds that discussed.

The dove perched on a branch managed to shut up those who were making such a scandal and said to them: “What is happening to you? Why are you fighting?”

And they all answered at the same time: we are discussing our problems.

The silver plated dove sweetly answered them: “But if you all speak at the same time, you will never understand each other.”

2nd Part
The educator will ask the children questions about the content of the story and later he will talk about the importance of knowing how to listen, to be in agreement and not to speak at the same time, because if not it will happen to them as the little animals of the story that discussed their problems but could not be understood because they all spoke at the same time.

A recording that the educator will have prepared in advance, done in a moment when the group of children were all speaking at the same time, will be played for the children.

The idea is for them to listen and criticize themselves, comparing themselves with what they heard in the story.

Later, the teacher will try to obtain the commitment of the children to overcome this situation.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They knew how to critically analyze the story.
They needed help to critically analyze the story.
They knew how to critically analyze the recording and to compare themselves with the characters of the story.
They could relate the recording to their conduct.
They established commitments to regulate their conduct as far as knowing how to listen and waiting for their turn to speak.

ACTIVITY No 4
"I WILL WAIT FOR MY TURN"

Summary of the activity: The activity consists of a movement game, to consolidate in the children the self-control of some behaviours. In the first part, the educator explains the game and its rules, in the second the game is played, and in the final part the group analyzes the results of the activity.

Objectives: The children learn to wait for their turn, as a form of regulating their conduct.

Procedures:
• Game
• Practical actions

Material Resources: Small geometric figures.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator explains the game and its rules to the children.

"Jumping spaces"

Organization:

The educator has to form several groups in rows, with the same number of children, placed behind an exit line; two meters in front of this he sets the finish line.

In front of each group he draws, in the space framed by the two lines, small shapes (circles, triangles, squares), one close to the other, so that the children can jump over them.

Development:

The educator will call the first child of each row who will jump with both feet between the spaces and without stepping on the figure. When arriving at the finish line he will seat and wait for the rest of his team to do the activity.

Rules:

1.- The winning group will be the one that does the activity better and arrives first.
2.- It is not possible to start to jump until the prior classmate has not seated

2nd Part
The children play the game, and the educator tries to make them adjust to the rules so that they do not skip them.

3rd Part
The class has a conversation to evaluate the game, in which the educator will help the children to draw their own conclusions.

Here the educator will try to emphasize that the person that does not know how to wait will always lose the game, this happens in many things in life to people who hurry and later things do not come out well for them, besides it being a violation of the others’ rights.

The winners will be stimulated, as a group that not only did the needed movements well but because they knew how to wait for their turn.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They fulfilled adequately the rules of the game.
They needed help to adequately fulfil the rules of the game.
They understood that one has to know how to wait.
They needed aid to understand that one has to know how to wait.

ACTIVITY No 5
"GAME OF THE STATUES"

Summary of the activity: This is a game for the development of the child’s motor functions with some movements of corporal expression as a way to develop the control of their conduct, to maintain the posture for some time and to remain quiet.

Objectives:
• To teach children to control their motor conduct.
• To consolidate self-control through diverse routes.

Procedures:
• Game
• Practical actions

Material Resources: Photos or pictures of statues.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator explains to the children that the game consists of remaining still for some time as statues, quiet and holding the same position.

He will show them pictures or photos of the statues that they can imitate, for example: "The Colossus of Rhodes", with his open legs, his raised figure and the fire in his hand, also other well-known statues. He will show several positions of statues to them (they must not be uncomfortable positions) and each child will choose the one that he wishes to adopt.

The rules of the game are:
1.- To hold the position in a suitable way.
2.- It is not possible to begin before the order to start the game.
3.- It is not possible to stop the game until they are told to do so.
4.- It is necessary to remain silent.

2nd Part
The educator will give the order to start and to finish the game that must not last more than 4 or 5 minutes.

3rd Part
The educator and the children will talk about the game and will determine who did well, because they knew how to maintain the position of the statue for the given time and remained silent.

It will be emphasized that sometimes we must remain silent and calm, in the same way or similar to the statues to pay attention to the teacher, to listen to others, and to wait for our turn.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They played the game well.
They needed help to play the game.
They remained in their positions until they were told to stop them.
They could not control their motor conduct.

ACTIVITY No 6
CRITICAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE BLOCK
"WHAT WOULD YOU DO?"

Summary of the activity: It has to do with a critical experience in which several situations are shown to the child, who will have to say how he would solve them.

Objectives: To verify if the children have learned the necessity of the voluntary control of the conduct.

Procedures:
• Explanation
• Questions and answers
• Stories

Material Resources: Cards in which diverse situations are suggested.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will read to the children the following critical situations:

1.- Leonor was in a queue to buy the food that her grandma had asked for, but she was in a hurry because she wanted to play with her friend Elena, then she thought that if she pretended to have a stomach ache people would let her pass first, and so it was.

2.- Juan wanted to play, his friends were waiting for him and he went out to look for them, but when he was going out the door of his house his mother called him and told him that first he had to do his homework. Juan was so upset that he said things that made his mother very angry.

3.- Teresa and Lucia were talking in the patio of the school, one girl was telling the other that her mother had punished her unjustly because she had to call her very insistently every day so that she took a shower and she did not want to leave the game in order to have a shower.

4.- In an underground station there were two teachers, one of them was very displeased because she did not manage to have her children agree and everybody always wanted to speak at the same time, making a tremendous uproar in the activities.

These situations are only examples, the educator will be able to create others according to the characteristics of his group, as long as they match the objective of this block.

2nd Part
The children will have to make an analysis of these situations and explain their criteria on what they would do in similar situations.

The educator will summarize the activity talking about the necessity of self-control of the conduct in these and other situations.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They knew how to critically analyze the conduct of the characters in the different situations.
They needed help to critically analyze the conduct of the characters in the different situations.
They understood the necessity of self-control of their conduct.
They considered not committing the errors raised in the situations.
They have consolidated notions on the necessity of self-control.
They have obtained, for the most part, acceptable self-control in their actions.