You are going to need the book 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde for this session. The children love to play in the giant’s big and beautiful garden, but when he gets angry they all run away. When the giant behaves selfishly the bad weather sets in and doesn’t leave... until one day when things change again. Task Q...

The Philosophy Aristotle on parts and wholes (see quote below). Socrates on knowing that you know nothing. Frank Jackson and ‘Mary and the Black and White Room’ Russell’s theory of descriptions Plato on particulars and universals Teaching Strategies Quote to use with class (if appropriate): ‘The whol...

Stimulus Frog, Pig and Duck lived by the pond. They loved the pond and they often swan together, went fishing together and talked to eachother. They liked to think of themselves as the a team. One day a stranger arrived. It was a rat and it came to live at the edge of the pond. Pig discovered him and saw that his whiskers we long and his f...

The Talking Poem Hello, I’m a poem, A poem that talks to you But a poem that also Talks back A poem that says what it wants to Then says what it thinks you’ll Say back. “What do you mean?” I hear you say out loud. Well, something a little Like that! “Like what?” you shout out (Whether yo...

Story Many years ago, in Northern Italy, lived a king. He lived in a palace with his son, the Prince. Every week the king and his son would walk out of the castle, down the hill, through the trees to a lake. They would swim for hours and then, when they had swum enough; they would walk back to the castle with water dripping off the end of the...

Eric starts his life as an egg, that hatches into a caterpillar. He’s hungry and eats a lot! Then he’s much bigger. He makes himself a cocoon and then out comes a big beautiful butterfly. Task Questions: Is the egg Eric? Is the little caterpillar Eric? Is the big caterpillar Eric? Is the cocoon Eric? Is the butte...

Props needed: A bag Pieces with which a model of a caterpillar can be made Read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle in a fun and engaging way (e.g. leave out some words and refrains for them to say). Make a model of a caterpillar on the floor for them all to see and ask them to take you through the transformati...

The Philosophy This session is designed to inspire awe and wonder at the unusualness of the world around us and to inspire the idea that things are stranger than we might at first think and to get the children thinking along the same lines as many philosophers: that the world is not as it seems. Many of the pre-Socratics thought that the worl...

Bring in a rectangular object, and on the front it says ‘This is not a book’. The thing is called ‘This is not a book’. So what could it be? Could it be a book? Or must it be something else? How can we find out? Task Questions: Is it a book? If it’s got pages, is it a book? If it’s not got any...