Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the problem on the developmentof children's cognition of natural things. Nineteen natural things were used;e. g. the sun, the moon, air, clouds and rain, etc. They were divided intofour groups. Subjects at the age of 6-10 were required to answer individual-ly three kinds of questions: "What is it?" "Do they share some common ch-aracteristics?" and "Why does it comes about?" One hundred children weretested with 20 in each age group. The results indicate: 1) The levels of children's cognition of natural phe-nomena or objects rise with the increase of age. This developmental processmight be divided into two stages, that is a) unable to understand them orunderstanding ambiguously, and b) the stage of transition. The level of most6-10-yr olds' cognition belongs to the latter stage. 2) The period from 8-10yrs of age is one of speedy development with regard to the cognition of thenatural things tested. Besides, children's cognition of natural things developearlier than that of the generalization of similarity. 3) It is an important cha-racteristic in children's cognition to use their own explaination of natural phe-nomena. One determinant of this cbaracteristic, besides tbe child,s age, is thenature of the tested natural phenomenon as well as the child's experience. 4)Education and culture play an important part in children's cognitive develop-ment.

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