Stimulus There was a young man called Jerry, who lived with his mother. One day he decided it was time to move out and get a house of his own. He found a small piece of land to build his house on and ordered 500 bricks, which were delivered to that spot. The next morning Jerry went there with the builders but all the bricks were gon...

This session uses the song 'Bare Necessities' from The Jungle Book.  You may want to use the following clip as a stimulus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ogQ0uge06o   First, show the clip (or play the song).  Then, sing the first verse with the class a couple of times:  'Bare necessities, Those simpl...

You are going to need the book 'Blue Penguin' by Petr Horacek for this session. Blue Penguin isn’t like all the other penguins. Surprisingly enough, he’s blue! But he can still do all the things that other penguins can do. So is he still a penguin? Will he be able to fit in with all the others? Task Questi...

You are going to need the book 'Cheese belongs to you' by Alexis Deacon for this session.  According to rat law, if you found it, you own the cheese? But if someone bigger wants it, its theirs... but what if there’s a scarier rat who wants it? Who gets the cheese? Task Questions: Whose cheese is it? Is it fai...

Activity Make a table with 2 columns on the board. Label the 2 columns 'Choice' and 'not a choice' Give each pair a statement Blinking Sneezing Forgiving someone Dreaming about cake Getting angry Being free Feeling happy Being British Hitting someone Winning Cheating Going to school Liking math...

Main idea: What is Christmas? What are the things that make it Christmas and what would it still be Christmas if certain things were missing Main strategy: What’s needed and what’s enough? (The If Machine, p33) Examination of the essential properties of a thing can be conducted with two questions e.g: What is needed for a...

By Steve Hoggins This session is based on the story The little red hen. The difference being that in the tale the other characters holds exactly the same position – they don’t want to help. Resources 3 Puppets Story generation Introduce the three characters by name (I used to get the children to choose) and then s...

By Steve Hoggins This is based on an unattributed drawing from the 23 October 1892 issue of Fliegende Blätter, a German humour magazine. It was made famous by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations For a similar session, please see: Ducks and Rabbits Resources: 2 exact copies of the duck rabbit picture. Search...

Session: Plan around ‘Dragons and Giants’ (In Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel) making use of ‘The Hokey Kokey’ method (in [concrete], out [abstract], in again [test abstract against concrete) (see Once Upon an If for full explanation): 1) Read story up to “‘Yes, but are we (brave)?’ asked To...