Margaret Mead
Do you ever ask yourself what your child is thinking?
Teaching kids thinking skills can be as hard as teaching them that a shirt is not an optional piece of clothing or wearing a hat will protect them from rain.
Here are some easy critical thinking activities for young children.
1. Guessing Game
With a book in one hand behind your back. Ask your child to guess what is in your hand. As they make attempts to guess, give them clues such as: “It’s not fluffy, it’s yellow,” or “it is not plastic, and it doesn’t bounce.” This allows them to make guesses based on what they already know.
2. Play the ‘Is It True?’ Game
Ask your child a question that starts with ‘Is it true that…?’. When they answer, ask them how they know that it is true or false.
3. Play treasure hunt
When my son was young, he loved to play ‘treasure hunt’. One spring day, he arrived home with a bag with pink Easter straw and a half dozen plastic easter eggs. We played for hours searching for Easter eggs inside the house and in the backyard. During the search you can ask them where they think the eggs are and what’s inside.
4. Play Dates with a group of friends
Getting children to play together in a group is one of the best preschool critical thinking activities. The hardest part of this activity is getting the childrens’ attention.
When young children get together and communicate with each other, it will provide them the opportunity to learn from their friends and realize that there is more than one way of doing things.
Making pita pizzas with young children who help out making their own by selecting ingredients to top their slice, and of course, asking them the names of vegetables and why they like a particular ingredient.
5. Food Tasting
Forming an opinion is an important preschool critical thinking skill that will last a lifetime. Kids have strong opinions about food. My son loved chicken fingers, pizza and mac and cheese. When you introduce new foods, ask them what they like about it or dislike the food and why.
Then bring out something new that your child will love (we used oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) and let them predict whether or not they will like it and why.