Welcome to Childrenthinking. Our aim is to make this website work for you. We want practitioners to feel they can have a go and also share their questions, ideas and success stories. We aim to develop a wide community of people who believe that philosophical thinking underpins the self esteem, understanding and connectivity of our children. We will be updating

Sara and I were invited to run a workshop at the SAPERE (Society for Advancing Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education) Here are some of the quotes from the evaluation forms that SAPERE asked delegates to do: “Outstanding !  Answered many of the questions I am asked by Level 1 participants” “Excellent! Really practical, lots of tips to take away

 Playing with ideas I have reflected a lot over the years about Enquiries and have ,without doubt seen children fully engaged in the challenges of thinking deeply about their lives.  However for those teachers who work with Key Stage 2 children,  it is clear how important it is to find the laughter and “play” in learning whenever possible. When I taught

My Question Board introduces my parents to the activities that our children do in philosophy.  The question board activities serve as registration for the children who find their names and place them under the heading provided for each activity. I encourage their adults to model different points of view and ask their children to explain and justify reasons for their

This activity allows the children to think about the philosophical traits of a selection of story characters. the children should decide which of the two selected cards best fits their idea of the given concept. Characters could include; Clown, Policeman, Big bad Wolf, Wicked Queen, Wise King, Dragon, Witch, Fairy, Father Christmas, Captain Hook, Werewolf etc. place 2 cards on

We would love to hear questions, ideas and examples of thinking from your classrooms. Please email us on childrenthinking@gmail.com Please ensure you have permission to use photos of children from parent/carers     Found this interesting? Please share with others

We feel it important to involve our parent/carers in the philosophical dialogues of their children. After each session the children decide on a question or idea that  they wish to explore further at home. The children have a journal where they record their philosophy ideas in school. This journal is shared between home and school to build upon ideas. Below

Stimulus Large drawing of a monster Stimulus details Draw a monster with a closed mouth (no teeth) three arms, four legs and a tail. Ensure that it looks neither friendly nor frightening. Year group Nursery/reception Skill focus Sharing ideas. Listening as part of a group. Making a decision. Revisiting a question after dialogue. Thinking focus Should we judge from appearance

Enquiry in KS1 using The Last Noo-Noo- Jill Murphy Questions asked by the children Why did Grandma say “nonsense”? Why did mum throw the dummies away? Why did Marlon have lots of dummies? Why did he still need a dummy? Why did the monsters tease him? Why did the monsters snatch his noo noo? Why didn’t Marlon want to give

Stimulus Set of fairy tale character cards or figures. Stimulus details Set of figures, toys, puppets or pictures  depicting a dragon, king, evil queen, big bad wolf, witch, an ogre, prince, knight etc.  Year group Nursery/reception  Skill focus Justifying a choice. Agreeing and disagreeing with other choices. Introducing bigger concepts. Thinking focus Thinking about how characters behave and why. Understanding