By Steve Hoggins The idea for the characters of Critu and Aris is taken from David Birch’s entries in 'The Philosophy Shop', edited by peter Worley. Ed Weijers and his colleague Eef Cornelisson, who I met through the SOPHIA network, inspired the ‘alive or not alive?’ question. Set up Gather some objects and/...

You are going to need the book 'Knuffle Bunny' by Mo Willems for this session.  Trixie and her knuffle bunny are going with Daddy to the Laundromat. Using the washing machine is fun and then it’s time to go home, but hang on... something’s wrong. Trixie wants to say something, but Daddy doesn’t understand. ...

Laika has a job to do. The people are too scared to be the first ones to go into space, so they’re sending Laika to go first – and let’s hope she comes back home after. But something goes wrong, and Laika is left floating in the darkness... what will happen to her? Task questions: Is it fair to send Laika into spac...

The Hueys are counting things, but when they realise that the number of pieces of cheese over there is ‘none’, they start to wonder, if none is a number or not? Task Questions: Is none a number? Is zero a number? Is zero the same as none? Is nothing, something or nothing? Is none the same as nothing? Extensi...

You are going to need the book 'Oh no, George!' by Chris Haughton for this session.  Harris asks George to be good while he goes out. George says, “Yes, I’ll be very good”. But left on his own, even if he wants to be good and hopes he’ll be good, there are so many things to distract George. Will he be go...

Resources 4 pens (pen person’s arms) A small sandwich box (pen person’s body) A ball (pen person’s head) Key controversies What makes you a person? Can you be a person without certain things (limbs, for example) Starter sit children in a circle One by one draw the objects out of a bag and ask a c...

  If an alien came down and saw a box of funny coloured paper with a ribbon tied around it, would they think its special? Why when we look at these boxes do we think there must be something inside? And why do we get excited? Task Questions: Is this a present? Is this piece of rubbish I found a present? If you give me thi...

This session is based on the book 'The Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pfister. The rainbow fish is the most beautiful fish in the sea. No other fish has such sparkly and colourful scales. When another fish asks if they can have one of those sparkly scales, the rainbow fish says ‘no’. Now she doesn’t have any friends. What...

This session uses picture book: 'Red Ted and the Lost Things' by Michael Rosen & Joel Stewart Props: Philosophy Elephant Blank postcards. Starter: Introduce Philosophy Elephant.  Session: Introduce the story by asking the children, ‘have you ever been lost, even for a little while? What happened?...