Key ideas Perseverance - is it a good thing?   Stimulus This version is for younger years, Reception to year 3 or thereabouts Tell the children the story of Incy Wincy spider (they should know it and will probably start joining in) Incy the spider climbed up the water spout and nearly got to the top when all of a sudden, t...

STIMULUS Open with a sitting-down game/activity and then ask the pupils, “Is what you just did ‘sport’?”   QUESTIONS & AVENUES Does sport require competition? Does sport need to have winners and losers? Is all exercise sport? Is all sport exercise? Does sport need to be good for your h...

The Philosophy This is one of a themed number of sessions on personal identity. In this session the children will consider, philosophically, a familiar device used in many science-fiction stories in which teleportation is a reality. It is similar to the clone session, Yous On Another Planet, but with a significant difference as it is not left...

Session This session will invite the children to devise their own storytelling techniques and will explore the concept of ‘story’ itself. Explain to the children that that they will be given a special task this week: to tell a story to someone else (works well for National Storytelling Week, usually end of January). Explain that t...

The Philosophy This session goes very well with 'Get Stuffed: Fun With Metaphysics' in The If Machine. Get Stuffed should be run after this one. This may also take a couple of sessions to complete. The aim of this session is to get them to consider whether there is one kind of thing or stuff, or many kinds of thing or stuff. Begin by ...

Key idea Qualities of a superhero. What makes someone a superhero? Is it how you look or what you do that is important? Resources Charlie’s Superhero Underpants by Paul Bright & Lee Wildish (It could be any book about a super hero really, I just found this one quite fun) A super hero cape Some superhero gloves So...

The Philosophy This session was designed to focus specifically on logic. There was a class who would agree to logically inconsistent statements without realising it (eg. 'Is it possible to think of nothing?' 'No' Did you think of nothing? 'Yes'). So the children are asked to say which sentences are consistent. In ...

A tadpole and a caterpillar fall in love. “Promise me you’ll never change” asks the caterpillar. The tadpole says “I promise.” But will he keep his promise? Can he keep his promise? And what will happen if he does change? Task Questions: Did the tadpole break his promise? Did the tadpole change? Is ...

Get children to act out story: DO: Tell the children they are to imagine the centre of the circle is a place called NewTown.  Get some children to throw imaginary rubbish (or use something physical, like bags of recycling) into middle of circle. SAY: NewTown was getting very messy and smelly because the bins were so full.  The Bo...