Philosophy Activities

Philosophy 1: Two Goats

The starting point is always a calming down exercise. In this exercise students are first made to close their eyes. Since almost 75% of the stimulus a brain receives is visual, the eye closing serves to focus attention on the other sensory organ inputs. The teacher needs to help direct the brain towards the other senses. The student sits upright with both feet planted firmly on the ground (I myself prefer bare feet on the ground.) The first sense to explore is touch. Sense how you can feel the chair that you are sitting on. Sense the cloth of your uniform touching your body. We then move on to sounds. Hear the sounds of your body breathing, hear the sounds in the class – of the wind coming in through the windows, the fans whirring. Hear the sounds outside the class – vehicles moving on the road outside. After about 2 minutes ask students to slowly open their eyes. Then ask them how they feel? During the session you can ask this ‘how do you feel?’ question often. It serves to reinforce positive feelings. You can also ask “What did you think of?’ This is to check on students who are still not in the zone. Divergent thinking needs to be discouraged.

The first part of the session is usually a round-up of a thinking assignment that was given after last week’s session. Some teachers put the ‘Thought for the Week’ on the board or as a poster on the classroom wall to serve as a reminder to students to do this thinking. The starting discussion is important because it tells us whether students have actually been up to the thinking task through the week. They offer evidence of what worked – and what did not. The discussions reinforce the last lesson.

Students have to make a story by first arranging the cards in the right sequence. And then writing down the story. Ask groups to narrate the story.

At the end of the activity, the participants got back to the round table format that is usual for P4C sessions. Paddy then started his questioning. ‘Why did we do this activity?’ ‘What was your role in the group?’ ‘Did everyone contribute?’ ‘What did the group do wrong?’ ‘What should be the thought for the week?’

Students themselves come up with the ‘Thought for the week’ – and then the cycle starts again.

All the Philosophy sessions will follow this template. So for remaining sessions only activities / stories are highlighted.

Philosophy 2: Sheep and Shepherd

This was a role play – where some of us had to become shepherds and the rest sheep. The run time of the activity was 45 minutes. Instructions were written down on a card and presented to groups. The first thing that Paddy did was to ask ‘Who wants to volunteer to be the leader (Shepherd)?’ In our class, Archana and Anita volunteered. The two shepherds were then asked to choose their own flock in a way that the sheep were distributed equally between groups. Each group then separated out and were told to follow the instructions of the card and come up with a plan to execute the task given on the card.

The card instructions were that the group had to use very simple sounds like – whistles, claps, and beating of sticks in order to get the sheep into an area which was designated the pen. The sheep could be placed anywhere in the play area. The shepherd had to stand at a designated area and guide the blindfolded sheep. Each group had to come up with their own rules that when used would help the blindfolded sheep move into the pen. Surprisingly, both the groups that were formed came up with very similar rules. In order to ensure that as a teacher you have as much fun with this exercise as we did, I will not take you through the rules we used. But as a moderator a tip is that you can use objects to delineate obstructions and the pen in the ground.

At the end of the activity the participants got back to the round table format that is usual for P4C sessions. Paddy then started his questioning. ‘Why did we do this activity?’ ‘Why did you choose to be a leader / follower?’ ‘When the pre-activity group rule discussions started, did everyone contribute?’ ‘Did the group have a post-event discussion?’ (This was a close ended question because neither of the groups had had this discussion. He made us feel guilty as hell for being poor learners of learning.) ‘What did the other group do wrong?’ ‘What is responsibility?’ ‘What should be the thought for the week?’

Paddy gave us tips on how to make the game more interesting. Having two groups working in parallel on the ground. Ensuring that other groups sheep have to be avoided. Converting one of the sheep into a fox. And he also advised that if there are multiple ideas for the ‘Thought of the week’, then the facilitator needs to zero in on one idea that they think is the most relevant to the activity.

A few word on rules related to discussions. In the case of our session, Paddy had got along placards with rules written on them. He showed them to us before we started the session. In case any one was not following rules, he only had to raise that placard for us to get the point. This saved time for both students and teacher – and at the same time did not seem to hurt the ego of the offending party. One interesting idea that Paddy introduced was to have a separate session (preferably the starting one) where the class discusses the importance of rules – and ends up agreeing on what rules are important for the class.

Here is a rough plan for the Rules class. Introduce the concept of rules and develop briefly. Here are questions that will help. Where do we find rules? Why do we have rules? Are rules always useful? Why? Should we always stick to rules? What would life be like without rules? Break children into small working groups depending on their ability to co-operate. Small friendship groups are ideal to start off with. Explain to the class that there is going to be thinking about how we should work and talk together. By the end of the session, the class would have made up a set of rules, especially for them.

To start off, they are going to look at some possible rules and with their partner group decides which of them would be helpful or not helpful for the class. Here are a few sample rules:

Talk about what you are going to do after school

Make silly noises

Interrupt when the teacher is speaking

Shout out when you would like to say something

One person talks at a time

Put your hand up if you would like to say something

Look at the person who is talking

Cooperate with each other

Everyone takes a turn

Listen to the person who is talking

Sit facing each other

Stop at the teacher’s signal

Stay on the task.

Once the group has discussed each rule, they should place it on the chart according to its importance. Before they are given the materials, the group should decide on a strategy for carrying out the task. How will they manage the cards, How will decide where the card goes, Who will go first etc.

Distribute the materials and allow groups to carry out the task. Circulate and ask Groups for reasons for placement of cards. If group complete task, they can use blank cards to make up some cards of their own and place them on the chart. Alternatively a floor set of rules may be done with the whole class.

Once cards have been placed, each group should take the best rules and put them in order of importance. Again they should have reasons for this. Groups report back and as a class decide on the best rules. Teacher can add any rule she thinks are important. After all, she is also part of the class.

Review lesson how well did children work? What was learned. Discuss a possible thought for the week. (Hopefully to do with rules and their effect). Display the thought with the rules the class has decided on. Class could illustrate them. Children should sign an agreement and display it along with the rules, illustrations and thought for the week.

He also told us of an interesting exercise that they had done using this template in the rural school. Coming from the low income, socially backward background, most students of the school used language which was plentiful in abuses. So one day the class had a discussion on abuses. It started by listing down all abuses on the board. And then there was a discussion on what abuses were acceptable – and what were not. They realized to their consternation, that most were not. Yet, they were also troubled, that in the absence of the function of steam-letting out which is served by abuses, there would be physical violence. So they then came up with a new list of acceptable abuses. Most of the happened to be animal names! They also came out with a consensus punishment for the use of abuses. The implementation is quite innovative. There is a register outside every class where anyone can record details of the ‘abuse’ incident. Once the incident is verified, the student takes up the punishment – which is typically watering the garden..

We ended the session with an evaluation. Evaluations are important as they reinforce learning. Paddy typically picks up one rule to focus on in a session. He uses his standard trick of raising or lowering hands in order to check with the class as to how much of conformance was there with the rules. Sometimes this evaluation is also done by a specially invited observer. Form for evaluation is at the end of the note. The evaluation can serve as a guide map of future focus areas of a class.

Philosophy 3: The Magic of Happiness

• • 1. Remind children that they can look outwards and inwards. That is, through using the senses (outwards) and by knowing or ‘watching’ our thoughts (inwards). Both of these can happen whilst doing the exercise. Practise the exercise together.
    2. Remind pupils that each week they will be asked to think about the last philosophy session, and bring forward any new evidence, thoughts or ideas connected with it. They should know that philosophy and thinking do not just take place during the 1 hour lesson per week – good thinking can take place at anytime.
    3. Make sure the class have agreed on the rules for good dialogue e.g. one person speaks at a time. See the list in the first section of the book.
    4. Read the story ‘The Magic of Happiness’.
    5. Ask children to remember three things that happened in the story, in the correct order, and then share these with a partner.
    6. Working in groups of 3 or 4, get children to discuss what they thought was the theme or ‘inner meaning’ of the story, giving evidence from the story. For example, ‘We think the theme was friendship because . . . ’
    7. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate the dialogue.
    8. For a closure activity, get children to think of one idea mentioned today that is important to them.
    9. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week.’

The Magic of Happiness

This modern fairy story for younger children, shows that there are subtle aspects to happiness, and that the absence of it affects everyone and everything around. Benson the giant takes a while to learn that happiness is best!

You’ve all heard stories about giants before, haven’t you? Greedy giants, like the one in Jack and the Beanstalk. Stupid giants, cruel and treacherous giants, even kind giants.

This is the story of a sad and miserable giant. His name was Benton and he lived in a big house with a very large garden.

One thing that Benton liked was flowers. He loved to look at the delicate structure of their petals and stamens and marvel at their brilliant colours. He would bend and put his enormous nose near them and smell their scent. Sometimes he would just sit and watch the bees gathering nectar or the butterflies hovering about. The only trouble was, even in his vast garden, not a single flower would grow. He could only admire flowers in other people’s gardens.

All the people of the village were used to Benton, of course. Some of them felt sorry for him but others thought him mean and unfriendly. He was always straying into their gardens to admire the flowers but if anyone came near his house, he would send them away with a roar and a wave of a huge fist.

Benton tried planting seeds. He watered them well and they came up, but as soon as he bent over to peer at them, they wilted, and Benton’s face would droop too. He tried buying plants from the garden centre but as soon as he planted them in his own garden, they wilted and died. Once he even paid a gardener to plant out his garden, but it was no use. The minute that Benton came out to look at the flowers, the colourful blooms bent their heads and the leaves curled up and withered. Even weeds and grass wouldn’t grow, so that the giant’s garden looked like a desert of dry earth and stones.

The only living thing in Benton’s garden was a huge oak tree. It was hundreds of years old and far more powerful than the giant. In fact, when the giant sat under its gnarled branches sometimes on hot summer days, even he looked small by comparison.

Children sometimes looked into his garden as it seemed like a good place to kick a ball around and the oak tree looked inviting to climb. But Benton the giant would roar and shake his massive fist and they would run back home, holding their hands over their ears.

One day he was sick. When he awoke in the morning he felt hot and shivery. He tried to get out of bed but almost fell over as dizziness overcame him.

‘Oooh, I feel bad,’ he moaned, and lay down in bed again.

For three days he stayed there, just managing sometimes to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom. No-one knew he was ill. No-one came to visit him or make him something nice to eat. On the fourth day he felt a little better and sat up on the side of the bed. Something caught his eye outside the window and he stood up for a better look. There were children playing in a corner of his garden!

Benton leapt to his feet, raising his fist and preparing to bang on the window and bellow to frighten them away.

But his legs felt weak and would hardly hold him and his arm felt heavy and flopped back to his side. Even the bellow in his throat came out as a whisper.

Benton slumped back on the bed, annoyed. He would get them! When he was better he would teach them a lesson.

It took several more days for the giant to recover completely and all the time he could hear the laughter and shouts of the children having fun in his garden. At last he felt better and early one morning he went downstairs. He opened the front door quietly and peered out.

‘Good,’ he said to himself. ‘The children haven’t arrived yet, but when they do, they are in for a big fright.’

Benton crept outside and hid behind the big oak tree. Then he waited. Soon the children arrived, skipping and laughing. The giant watched as they entered his gate and went over to the corner where they had been playing. Then he took a deep breath.

‘Go Away’! he roared.

The children screamed and fled with Benton striding after them, making sure they were well away from his gate. Then he turned back towards his house.

But something caught his eye. In the corner where the children had been playing a thick carpet of grass covered the ground. Through it daisies and buttercups poked their heads. Around the edges were clumps of wild flowers.

Benton couldn’t believe his eyes! He strode over for a closer look but as he reached them the colours faded, the flower petals fell and the grass turned brown. Before his eyes the garden disappeared leaving brown dusty earth.

What had made the garden grow? What magic did the children possess?

He remembered the sound of their happy playing. Was that what it was?

Benton ran back towards the gate and along the road. ‘Come back!’ he shouted. ‘Children! Come back!’

The children stopped running and turned round, unable to believe their ears. There stood Benton waving his hand to bring them back instead of his fist to shoo them away.

Slowly they went back. What had made the giant change? They were suspicious at first. ‘Why are you calling us back?’ asked one brave boy.

‘Because you have the magic of happiness,’ said the giant. ‘You made my garden bloom. Come in and see.’

The children trooped in and soon forgot the giant and started to play again. Benton watched from his doorway.

Little by little spikes of green grass sprouted and thickened into a lawn. Flowers opened their petals in a rainbow of colours. Soon bees and dragonflies arrived, and birds sang from the oak tree.

Benton was the happiest giant in the world.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Benton didn’t like children, and he was always feeling miserable, but what was the one thing that he did like?

Do you think this shows us anything about Benton?

Why did Benton call the children back after he had been shouting at them?

Have you ever been unhappy and seen the effect it has on others?

What effect does being happy have on other people?

How could this affect our class? Our school? Our family?

What causes happiness?

Are there different kinds of happiness?

Does happiness last? Why? Why not?

Can we choose to be happy?

Thought for the Week

Look to see what makes you happy. Can we make others happy? Where is happiness?

Philosophy 4: Saying Nice Things

1. Remind the children again that when ‘in the present (moment)’ they are aware of both what is known through the senses and the fact that they are knowing or experiencing it. (For example, this is looking at something and at that moment knowing that you are seeing. It is making that conscious connection with what is under observation.) Practise the exercise, trying to ‘be in the present’.
2. Remember the story about ‘The Magic of Happiness’ and see what further ideas children can bring to last week’s dialogue. Remember the ‘Thought for the Week’ and ask for further ideas and thoughts about this.
3. Do the activity ‘Saying Nice Things’.
4. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to support dialogue investigating the children’s feelings in doing the activity.
5. Sum up the important ideas talked about in the dialogue. These may be displayed with the sentences.
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

‘Saying nice things’ – activity

1 Explain that today they are going to be working on saying nice things about each other. Ask them to have a look around the class and think about the kinds of nice things they could say about each other. Encourage them to look beyond the physical – for example not ‘Jenny is wearing a nice jumper’, but rather ‘Jenny is very generous to others’. They should think about the particular qualities each person has. Take some examples.

1. Activity
   • Put children into working groups of 4-5 – if possible sitting round a table facing each other. You may want to keep together those who will need your support.
   • Everyone should be given a blank piece of A4 paper and coloured pens should be made available.
   • Everyone puts his/her name at the top and passes that paper to the next person in the group.
   • Each child writes a sentence at the bottom of the page saying something nice about the person whose name is at the top. Each sentence should start with the child’s name and children should be encouraged to give evidence where possible for example, Jenny is kind and considerate because she shared her crisps with me when I forgot mine.
   • Reassure children that on this occasion you are not particularly worried about spelling and they should use the words they want even if they are not spelled correctly.
   • Some children may need to be reminded that only nice things can be written. Others may need help scribing. This can either be done by the teacher or by another pupil in the group.
   • Each paper is then folded up so that the sentence cannot be seen and passed on to the next person. The next person writes his/her sentence above the first fold and then folds it up and passes it on once more.
   • This is repeated until every member of the group has written a nice sentence about each member of the group. You may like to let each person also write a sentence about him/herself.
   • The papers can then be opened up and read by the person who wrote the first sentence.
   • Papers can later be displayed, word processed or simply given to the child to keep.
2. Ask the children first to think about what they noticed about the activity – what they thought, how they felt – and then share this with a partner.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Encourage the children to provide evidence of what they say where possible i.e. can they give an example from their own experience?

What is the effect of people saying nice things about you? How does it make you feel?

What is the effect of saying something nice to another person? How does it make them feel or act?

Is it possible to say something nice to someone even if you don’t feel like saying it?

Is it always easy to say nice things about someone else? Why not?

How do you feel if someone says something unkind to you or about you?

Should you say something nice even when it is not true? Why? Why not?

Do you think everybody has some nice qualities? Evidence?

What does it mean when people say ‘You should be positive’? How was the activity you just did positive?

What are the effects from being positive? What are the effects of being negative?

How could that activity help our class?

Thought for the Week

Be aware of what you say about other people, and how you say it. Do you say nice, positive things about them, or do you just criticise? What are the effects?

Philosophy 5: The Donkey’s Shadow

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention. Praise those who are obviously connected in the present moment and not day-dreaming.
2. Remind children of last week’s activity, recall the dialogue and take any further comments or evidence from children.
3. Read the story ‘The Donkey’s Shadow’.
4. Ask pupils to remember three things that happened in the story but in reverse chronological order. After giving time for them to do this, let them share these with a partner.
5. Ask children what they thought was the theme of the story. Take answers and build up an ideas web on the board. Do not give them to the children, but examples could be ‘greed’, ‘selfishness’, ‘ownership’.
6. Move to using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate dialogue.
7. For a closure activity, look again at the web on the board and see which idea or ideas have been developed through the dialogue, and how they have developed.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Donkey’s Shadow

A traveller had a long distance to go so he hired a donkey to carry him and his bags.

They set off, the traveller riding the donkey and the donkey’s owner walking alongside.

Along the dusty track they went, through the cool forest and up towards the distant hills. After a time they emerged from the cover of the forest to the bare hills where there was no shade.

It was a fine day and as time went by it grew hotter and hotter. The traveller wore a hat but still the sweat trickled down his neck and he longed for a drink. He became so hot and thirsty that soon he couldn’t stop thinking about having a drink. Oh! For some lovely cool water!

‘I must rest and have some water,’ he said to the donkey owner, who was well used to walking in hot weather.

He dismounted and sat down in the donkey’s shadow, which was the only shade there was. The owner of the donkey was at ease, and sat waiting for the traveller to feel better.

Soon the donkey’s owner also began to feel too hot in the sun. He saw that the only shadow there was, was the donkey’s shadow – and there was only room for one person to rest in that shadow!

‘Move over,’ he said. ‘I own the donkey and therefore his shadow too. I want to use the shadow.’

‘But when I hired the donkey I also hired his shadow,’ said the traveller. ‘No, you did not.’ The owner gave him a little push.

‘Oh yes I did! A donkey and his shadow cannot be separated, and since I’ve paid for the donkey, I’ve paid for his shadow.’

Soon the two men were pushing and shoving each other and then thumping and punching.

While all this was going on they didn’t notice the donkey wandering away, so that when the men eventually fell exhausted to the ground there was no shadow . . . and no donkey either.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why did the men begin to quarrel?

Who do you agree with – the traveller or the donkey owner? Why?

Why did the traveller think he owned the shadow?

What is a shadow?

Is it possible to own a shadow? Why? Why not?

What was the problem?

Was there any other solution?

How would you have acted in that situation? Why?

Why do people share? Reasons? Evidence?

Why do people not share? Evidence?

Thought for the Week

During the week, see whether you share, or whether you are greedy. How do you feel at the time? What makes you share or not share?

Philosophy 6: What’s my Line number?

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention.
2. Recall the story from last week and see if children have evidence of further thinking on the theme, especially in connection with the ‘Thought for the Week’.
3. Play ‘What’s My Line?’ then try ‘What’s My Number?’
4. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’, to consider ways of thinking that may be used in order to play the games.
5. Close by praising individuals or groups who have shown good thinking, been focussed on their work, and so on.

‘WHAT’S MY LINE?’ – ACTIVITY

This game is based on an American television show of years ago, where a celebrity guest, sometimes with an unusual occupation ‘signed in’. The panel had a limited number of questions to discover what the guest’s ‘line’ was – that is, what they did for a living.

• To play the game in the classroom, a child is the ‘guest’ and thinks of an occupation. For example, postman, policewoman, helicopter pilot, and so on.
• One person is scorer and keeps a tally on the board.
• The class now have to ask questions of the guest – who can only answer either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – nothing more.
• The scorer keeps a tally of the responses.

YES III NO II etc.

• For the class to win the game, they must correctly guess the occupation before 10 ‘no’s’ are reached. The ‘guest’ wins if the 10 ‘no’s’ are reached.
• If a child guesses correctly, that child becomes the ‘guest’ for the next game.

The class soon learn (or sometimes the teacher needs to get them thinking about the fact) that to directly go to specific occupations soon exhausts the ten ‘no’s’. They have to think of strategies that will enable them to narrow down the possibilities. Such questions might include ‘Do you wear a uniform?’, ‘Do you work outdoors?’, ‘Do you deal with the pub- lic in your job?’. Obviously, if the answer to ‘Do you wear a uniform?’, is ‘Yes’, then that eliminates all jobs where the person does not have a uniform.

It is important, after playing the game a couple of times, perhaps without too much success on the part of the class, to let them discuss what some strategies might be, before playing again.

WHAT’S MY NUMBER?

This is similar to ‘What’s my Line?’ except that instead of a job, a number is held in mind. The teacher can limit this to what is suitable to the class. For example, numbers less than 100, less than 1000, and so on. Of course, a class can also start with a smaller limit and raise it as they become more skilled.

• In this game, the nature of the questions will be somewhat different – ‘Is the number a multiple of 10?’, ‘Is the number divisible by two?’ and so on. The mathematical con- cepts will have to be suitable to the age limit, and can be phrased in the mathematical language used by the class.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

If you were the person acting as the ‘guest’, was there a temptation to cheat? (Change the answer you had in your head)

If you had, what do you think would have been the effect?

If you didn’t get the answer quite quickly did you feel like giving up, or that it was a silly game? Why? What other feelings did you have?

What strategies (ways of thinking or asking questions) did you use?

How would you know if it was a good way of thinking or not so good?

Did you learn a way of thinking or asking questions from listening to others? Is this cheating? Why or why not?

If you learned a way of asking questions in one game, did it work in the next game? Why or why not?

Thought for the Week

Why do we play games? Is it always important to win? Try to find some an- swers to these questions as you play games during the week.

Philosophy 7: Learning to Swim

1. Remind children that when in the exercise they are connecting with the ‘present moment’ through the sense of sight, that ‘shapes’ are not just geometric shapes, but the shapes of anything and everything that can be observed – people, furniture etc. Practise the exercise, then ask what was observed.
2. Read the story ‘Learning to Swim’.
3. To see who has been listening well, play ‘True, False, Can’t Tell’. In this, the teacher reads a series of statements about the content of the story and pupils have to decide if they are true, or false, or if there is no evidence for their decisions. (If you want to make a bit of fun, let children show their decision in different ways. For example, true by putting hands on heads, false by . . . )
4. Working in pairs, get the children to decide on a theme for the story. Some of these can be put on the board, with lines joining linked ideas. Children should give evidence to support their reasons for linking.
5. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
6. To close, ask for volunteers to sum up the ideas that have been discussed. Let several children do this, with each adding one thought.
7. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Learning to Swim

Patience can be used not only for one’s own benefit, but also for that of others, as Jamie finds out in helping his brother. Curiously, he finds there is also something in it for him!

Jamie was a champion swimmer. In fact, his ambition was to swim in the Olympics one day. He competed in all the swimming competitions at his local sports centre. Like a duck in water, his mum always said.

And she, was like a cat in water, she hated it. In fact cats could swim if they had to, whereas she couldn’t. She often said that her brother had ducked her when they were children and she’d hated it ever since.

Today Mum was taking Jamie and his young brother Brad to the swimming pool.

Jamie had a practice session later.

‘Teach me to swim,’ said Brad in the car. He was just five and had recently started school. ‘I want to swim like you, Jamie.’

Jamie laughed. ‘You’re afraid of getting your face wet. You always cry. You have to put your face under water to swim properly.’

‘I will put my face in,’ said Brad, but he looked at their mother apprehensively.

When they got to the pool the two boys went to put on their trunks and their mum went to sit in the spectators’ seats.

Jamie really wanted to dive straight into the big pool and carve swiftly through the water with his strong crawl. There weren’t many people and the empty lanes looked really tempting.

‘Another time, Brad,’ he said.

His brother pouted. ‘Please, Jamie. I want to swim like you.’

What if he did teach Brad? What if Brad became a better swimmer than him? Reluctantly he gave in.

‘Okay.’ Jamie went to the small pool and slid in off the side. Brad hesitated on the edge. He looked up at their mum, then back at the water.

‘Come on,’ said Jamie, impatiently. ‘Do you want me to teach you or not?’ ‘Don’t force him,’ called out Mum. ‘You might scare him.’

Jamie wished he’d said no at the beginning.

Brad ran to the steps and climbed down into the water. It came up to his waist. ‘Right,’ said Jamie. ‘Hold onto the edge and kick your legs. Like this.’

But Brad couldn’t get his feet off the bottom.

Jamie sighed. ‘You can’t swim with your feet on the bottom,’ he said. This was wasting time. He thought of grabbing Brad’s legs and lifting them up. He’d heard of people who threw young children into the pool so that they had to swim. That way they learnt quickly.

‘I’ll hold you round the waist,’ he said. ‘You’ll be all right.’

‘I might sink,’ wailed Brad. Jamie saw the fear in his brother’s face and he softened a little.

‘No, you won’t. I won’t let you sink.’

Slowly Brad lifted one foot off the bottom, then the other. Finally his body floated while he held the side of the pool. By the end of the session he could do it without Jamie holding him.

But then he let go with one hand to wave to Mum and his face went under and got a mouthful of water and came up crying. Mum came running down and lifted him out.

This is hopeless, thought Jamie. Crying just because he got a mouthful of water. ‘Brad,’ said Jamie.

‘Don’t be such a baby. I sometimes get a mouthful of water too.’

‘He got a fright,’ said Mum, soothingly, stroking Brad’s wet hair. ‘I got a fright,’ echoed Brad.

‘I’m going to practise,’ muttered Jamie. He was fed up with both of them. He didn’t care if Brad never learnt to swim. What did it matter?

Nevertheless, the next week he began to teach him again. During the week he had remembered being afraid himself. It had been when he had dived to the bottom to get his locker key, which had slipped off his wrist. It had been quite shallow but had seemed a long way down and he had almost panicked. The water had gurgled loudly and had stung his eyes and he had wanted to breathe. His lungs had been bursting. Then there was the time he’d suddenly found himself out of his depth . . .

‘Now you have to learn what to do with your arms,’ he said to Brad.

Brad started churning his arms round like windmills, slapping the water with open palms.

No, no,’ said Jamie. ‘Your hands have to be paddles and push the water away. Like this’ He cupped one hand and pushed it through the water. Brad tried again.

‘That’s better. Now, I’ll hold you and you try to swim.’

Later they practised putting their heads under water. Jamie showed Brad how to hold his nose until he got used to it and the little boy managed to dunk his head under quickly and come up smiling.

‘Very good,’ said Jamie.

Soon Brad could swim on his own for a few strokes and the day he did a whole width Jamie felt really proud. Brad’s style wasn’t great but Jamie could work on that.

All his patience had been worth it. Maybe he’d even persuade Mum to come and have a lesson.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why didn’t Jamie want to teach Brad to swim?

Why do you think he changed his mind?

Using evidence from the story, would you say Jamie was patient or not patient?

Was he patient right through the story?

How did Jamie feel, having taught Brad to swim? How did this compare with his feelings at the beginning of the story?

What are some things that would make you patient when dealing with a younger brother or sister? What are some things that would make you impatient?

What are the reasons why we get impatient with people?

Do you like people to be patient or impatient with you?

What would the school be like if everyone was impatient? Patient?

Does being ‘awake’ and in the present (such as when we practise the exercise) affect whether we are patient or not?

What is patience?

Thought for the Week

When you find yourself feeling impatient with someone, try to look for the reasons you are feeling like that. Compare that with how you feel when you are being patient.

Philosophy 8: Musical Activity

Before the activity session you will need to arrange three pieces of music to listen to. Examples of what would be suitable for this exercise are either two pieces of Mozart (piano concertos, or any instrumental concerto or sonata) and a contrasting piece such as ‘Mars’ from Holst’s ‘The Planet Suite’. A piece of Vivaldi could be used instead of the initial short Mozart piece. The second movement of a Mozart concerto is ideal, and these are usually about 8-10 minutes long. (Note: If teachers wish to learn more about the effects of music, ‘The Mozart Effect’ by Don Campbell is a good resource. The University of Southern California has also done a lot of research, much of which is available via the Internet.)

1. Do the calming exercise. Take observations from children about what they saw, felt and heard, and praise those whose comments show they were ‘in the present’ – not day-dreaming.
2. Remind the children of the story ‘Learning to Swim’ and see if anyone has had more thoughts or observations about patience.
3. Introduce the session by asking pupils simply to listen to a short piece of music. Play about 3 minutes from a piece of Mozart or Vivaldi.
4. Ask what the children observed about the listening process. Where was their attention? Were there ideas in mind? What were they? Was it difficult to focus on the music, hear it, and do nothing else?
5. After the initial discussion, make a judgement on how long the children will be able to listen. This may be anything from 5 to 15 minutes – but do not under-estimate their ability! Listen to the principal Mozart piece.
6. In pairs, ask the pupils to discuss what feelings they noticed as they listened. Were there ideas in their minds? How did their bodies feel? Give time for discussion, then ask for examples. (Note: In the discussion, draw out what was observed and also where their attention was – was it focussed or were they day-dreaming?)
7. Listen to the second piece, Holst or similar (a loud and energetic piece). Again get pupils to discuss their feelings. After a suitable time hear examples from individuals. Encourage pupils to question others for clarification of what is said.

Class Dialogue

Were the feelings any different in listening to the two pieces? If so, why might this be?

Do children recall any different feelings / effects in listening to other music? (For example, Pop music, marching music, hymns, jazz, country and so on.) What are they?

If the effects are different for different kinds of music, is this important? Is it useful? How?

Why do we listen to music?

What is music?

As the dialogue is coming to an end, ask the children to voice what for them is the most important thing they have learned about themselves today.

Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

As you listen to various kinds of music during the week, see if you notice how it affects you. How do you feel?

Philosophy 9: Albert Einstein

1. Practise the exercise in focusing and calming.
2. Remember the activity that was done last week, and get someone to re-tell what was done, and the outcomes. Take any further observations and discuss.
3. Read the story ‘Albert Einstein’.
4. Continuing to reinforce the work on content and theme, ask children to think of two questions relating to the content of the story. Today let these be addressed to the class, so that half a dozen pupils have the opportunity to ask questions.
5. Moving to the theme, give pupils time to consider what, for them, is the main theme. After sharing the theme and reasoning with a partner, each pair should join with another pair to make a small group. Each person should then give their theme and reasons for their choice. The group should discuss these, then choose a group theme from those discussed.
6. On the board a list of the group themes should be built up, drawing links as in past weeks.
7. Move to the dialogue through using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the process.
8. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’, and what they should do.

Albert Einstein

Physicist (1879-1955)

Albert opened his eyes. There was a feeling of excitement inside him but he couldn’t remember why. Was it a holiday from school?

Then he remembered. It was his birthday. Today he was five! Albert jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to where Mama and Papa were having breakfast.

‘Happy birthday, Albert!’ they said, hugging the little boy.

His mother gave him a flat parcel. Albert opened it. Inside was some violin sheet music. ‘A new piece for you to learn to play,’ she said.

‘And I have something for you too,’ said his father, handing him a small parcel.

This seemed more exciting. Albert fiddled to open the string and paper.

‘Hurry up’, said his mother. ‘It’s time you went to school. Come on – I have much to do.’

At last Albert took out the small object and looked at it. It was a bit like a small ‘It’s a clock.

‘No. It’s a compass,’ said his father. ‘It is this small object that guides sailors at sea. You see the needle with red point?’

Albert looked. Inside the round case under the glass a small metal arm seemed to float about. One end of it was painted red and pointed towards the window.

‘Look’, said his father. ‘Here are the different directions. North, south, east and west. Now, hold the compass flat in your hand so that the needle floats, then turn the compass around.’

Albert did so. To his surprise whichever way he turned the compass, the red needle always pointed towards the window.

‘The earth is like a giant magnet’, said his father. ‘The needle will always point north. Even if you are in the middle of the ocean, you can find your way with a compass. In clear weather the sun and the stars can guide you, but when it’s cloudy, you need your compass.’

Albert stared at the object in his hand with wonder. There were so many exciting things to learn about the earth and the universe – and he was going to find out about them. This was the best birthday present ever!

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

‘Albert stared at the object in his hand with wonder’. What is wonder?

Have you ever had something happen that caused the same feeling? Can anyone give an example?

It seemed that Albert had a curiosity to find out about things. He later went on to become a famous scientist. What is curiosity?

Why are we curious or have curiosity? What is the result?

Do you think curiosity is linked to philosophy? If so, how?

Is curiosity linked to learning? If so, how?

Is curiosity the same as nosiness? How are they the same? How are they different?

Is it good to be curious about things? What is the result?

Is it good to be nosey about things? What is the result?

Thought for the Week

Are you nosey? Are you curious? Look at your actions to discover the answer. If you are curious, is it helping you to learn? How do you know?

Philosophy 10: Changing the Rules

1. Practice the exercise. Ask children what they noticed going on in their mind. For example, did they drift off into daydreams for long periods or were they able to stay quite focussed. (It takes close observation to recognise this.) Praise those who had good attention.
2. Recall the story ‘Albert Einstein’ and ask if children had realised anything during the week about wonder. What evidence have they got?
3. Move to the instructions for ‘Changing the Rules’.
4. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

‘CHANGING THE RULES’ – ACTIVITY

The object of this session is to get children to begin to analyse why there are rules in games, and their effect. They will then use critical and creative thinking skills to change some rules and predict the effect. Children do not have to know all the rules, or even choose a major sport – knowledge of a simple playground game will be just as effective.

1. The children will work in groups of 4 or 5. Once in their groups, they should individually think of a game (football, tennis, chess etc.) that they know well, and think of the rules of the game. It is useful if there are two or three games represented by the group, rather than all thinking of football!
2. After thinking of the rules, and their purpose (both as separate rules and collectively), children should discuss each game, putting forward their own evidence of the rules and purposes, in turn. For example, the first child would speak briefly about their chosen game, the rules that are known, and their purpose. Each child then does it likewise. (If this looks too difficult initially, go through the process as a class first).
3. Working as individuals again, the pupils next consider how some rules might be changed, and what effect that might have on the game. They should be encouraged to think of the knock-on effect that changing one rule might have on other rules. They may introduce a new rule for a perceived effect.
4. After suitable thinking time, children should again report back. Others in the group may challenge any statements, provided they give their own supporting statement or evidence. For example, ‘I don’t agree with Kirsty about changing the throw-in be- cause…’ Children should know that they may later be asked to speak about the ideas of one of their group members – not their own!
5. Moving to class dialogue, the feedback session should hear from someone in each group. Children should tell about the work of someone else in their group. This is a good technique to encourage listening and focused attention.

Thought for the Week

Continue to try to find out more about why we have rules in games. Watch for evidence as you are playing games.

Philosophy 11: Helen Keller

1. Do the calming exercise by asking the children to focus particularly on listening. Afterwards, take examples of what was heard. Praise those examples that show that the child was focused on the sense impressions and not on any interpretation – that is, thinking about them.
2. See if the children have further evidence about rules and their purpose, from observations over the week.
3. Read ‘Helen Keller’ and ask two or three factual questions to make sure the content was understood.
4. Give the children time to think of three events contained in the story, and the ideas that link them. In pairs, share this information.
5. Using one of the ideas (either of their own or their partner’s) they should decide upon a theme for the story, or if they can, frame a philosophical question. This should be written on a slip of paper, which should be then put away until after the dialogue.
6. Begin the dialogue by using the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
7. For a closure activity, ask children to reveal their question/theme and draw any connections (if possible) between what is written and any elements that have emerged in the dialogue. Take examples.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Helen Keller

A woman who overcame deafness and blindness (1880-1968)

Helen Keller was born in Alabama, USA in 1880. Her father had been a soldier in the Civil War and owned a cotton plantation.

When baby Helen was born her sight and hearing were perfectly normal but when she was eighteen months old, she became very ill and although she got better, the illness made her blind and soon after, deaf too.

Imagine what it must be like to live in a dark and silent world.

Helen was a very difficult child. She would reach up and touch people’s lips and then move her own but nothing happened. She knew that other people could do things she couldn’t, and she didn’t understand. The frustration made her very angry and she would scream and smash things up. Her parents could not control her at all.

At that time Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was teaching deaf children and he suggested they try to find a teacher for Helen.

In 1887 a woman called Anne Sullivan was sent to teach Helen. Anne herself had been almost blind so she knew what it was like. Then she had had operations on her eyes and had regained some of her sight.

The Kellers were at their wits’ end with Helen. She had no table manners and would run around grabbing food off people’s plates.

Anne began by writing words with her finger on the palm of Helen’s hand. At first Helen did not understand what Anne was doing. She learnt a few of the tickly squiggles but it meant nothing.

One day Anne took her outside to the water pump and thrust her hand under the cold water. Then she wrote ‘water’ in the child’s other hand. Suddenly Helen realised that a squiggle on her hand meant the water. In excitement, she touched the pump and received the word for that. Then she touched everything on the way back to the house and Anne wrote the words.

Now she was so excited. At last she could communicate with people.

Helen was still not easy to teach. She had been so used to having her own way and sometimes refused to learn to do anything like get dressed herself. As punishment, Anne would refuse to ‘talk’ to Helen on her hand.

But Helen learned very quickly and Anne taught her to read Braille, a special sort of writing made up of raised dots. Soon she learnt to ‘listen’ to people by putting her hand on their mouth or throat.

What Helen wanted most of all was to be able to speak herself but she had never had chance to learn when she could hear so had no way of knowing what words sounded like. She was only ever able to make sounds which only Anne and a few family members could understand.

In 1904 Helen became the first deafblind person to earn a degree, thanks to Anne’s help.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Close your eyes and block your ears for 30 seconds. How did you feel? Even closing your eyes and blocking your ears you could probably see and hear a little. Can you understand a little of how Helen Keller felt? Can you describe this?

Think about how you learn about things – rocks, water, plates, tomatoes – anything and everything. Describe how you think you learn. What would have made it so much harder for Helen?

What does the story show about Helen’s attitude?

What does having a ‘positive attitude’ mean?

Do you ever get frustrated at not being able to do something? What? Why?

What can be learned from the story?

Thought for the Week

Look to see whether you get annoyed by not being able to do things sometimes. What sort of attitude do you have? What is the result?

Philosophy 12: Who’s Talking

1. Do the calming exercise.
2. Ask children if they have had further thoughts about their attitude? What have they discovered during the week?
3. Tell the children they are going to use a story that happened in a school for a stimulus this week. They will be trying to identify any philosophical issues in the story and frame some philosophical questions. Read ‘Who’s Talking?’.
4. Ask children some questions to determine that they have understood the story.
5. Remind children of the nature of philosophical questions. (If necessary give them a strategy such as first identifying a theme, then formulating a question. For example if the theme of the story was ‘fear’, one question would be ‘What is fear?’) Give time for them to consider the article and think about different themes. They should have reasons for their choice.
6. Share questions and reasons in pairs.
7. Build a web of themes on the board and show any link or tensions between the ideas given. Children should give their reasons as they give their questions.
8. Review the range of themes given, then give pupils time to consider all the ideas and choose the one they would like to investigate further through enquiry. Take a vote to determine the question to begin the dialogue.
9. Ask the person who originally put forward the idea to start the dialogue by re-stating the question and putting forward their own view.
10. In building the enquiry, remember to use a variety of types of question such as suggested in the ‘Questions for Thinking’ section at the beginning of this book. If the enquiry ‘runs out of steam’, go to the question with the second number of votes, and so on.

Who’s Talking

‘You’re a thief’, shouted Kathy. ‘I know you stole my pencil case. It was in your drawer.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Iain. ‘Someone must have put it there. I didn’t take it. Why would I want your stupid pencil case anyway? It’s a girl’s one.’

Kathy snorted with anger. ‘It’s not a girl’s one just because it’s got cats on it. But you wouldn’t like cats. You’re horrible!’

‘Pink cats?’ laughed Iain. ‘Would I like a pencil case with pink cats on it?’ Kathy’s face went red and she swung her school bag, hitting Iain on the hand. He yelled and grasped his fingers with his other hand.

Quite a crowd had gathered in the playground and one of the teachers came over to see what was happening.

‘I think you two had better go and see Mr Darville,’ she said.

Mr Darville was the Headteacher. Iain and Kathy were led in by the teacher and told to wait outside his door whilst she told him why they were there. When the teacher came out, Mr Darville beckoned Kathy to go in.

Kathy went in. She would tell Mr Darville about Iain alright. He was a trouble-maker.

He was always trying to cause arguments or annoy people. ‘What happened Kathy?’ asked the Head.

‘Iain stole my pencil-case,’ she said. ‘He’s a thief and he’s always causing trouble. I hate him!’

‘How do you know he stole it?’ asked Mr Darville. ‘I found it in his drawer,’ she said.

‘But is that proof that he took it?’, asked the Head.

‘Well he would. He’s always doing things to annoy people. Nobody likes him. He’s stolen things before’.

‘Oh, how do you know?’ ‘Everyone says so,’ said Kathy.

Kathy left the office, pulling a face at Iain as she passed him.

Mr Darville called Iain into the office. ‘Did you steal Kathy’s pencil case, Iain?’ ‘No. Kathy hit me with her bag and was getting mad at me, but I wouldn’t want it – it’s got pink cats on it anyway. Things like that are always happening to me Mr Darville. No one likes me. Ever since I came here people pick on me and blame me for things.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think Iain stole the pencil case? What evidence is there for that?

Can you think of reasons why he might have stolen it? Can you think of reasons why he wouldn’t?

Did Kathy have good evidence? Did she jump to conclusions? If so, why?

What makes us jump to conclusions? Any examples?

Sometimes, if we don’t know things, do we make them up? Why?

If we make things up, are those things lies? Any examples or evidence?

If we exaggerate, is that lying?

What does evidence mean? What is evidence?

Is it important to tell the truth? Why? Why not?

What is the truth?

Thought for the Week

Give children a Thought for the Week based on the questions that have arisen in the dialogue. Let them help formulate it, but keep it brief and with only one or two main points.

Philosophy 13: The Lion and the Mouse

1. Remind children of the reasons for doing the calming exercise. Reinforce the importance of being actively ‘connected’ through the senses – not just sitting being quiet. Talk the class through the exercise.
2. As it is the start of a new block of work, ask children to recall the rules of good dialogue that were agreed upon in Block 1, Session 1.
3. Introduce the story ‘The Lion and the Mouse’, and read it.
4. Ask the class to think of three themes that they think are important that happened in the story. Give time for them to do this.
5. In pairs or threes, pupils should share ideas and give reasons for their choices. Once this has been done, it can be done as a class, with the themes being written up on the board.
6. Draw any links (both metaphorically and on the board), between ideas, and also show ideas opposed to each other – perhaps in a different colour. Give an example if necessary.
7. Use the ‘Questions For Thinking’ to start the dialogue.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Lion and the Mouse

This fable shows that one does not have to be strong and powerful to be good. Each indi- vidual has talents that can be used for the good of others. These acts of goodness need not be huge events, but just everyday situations that arise in each individual’s life. The events will keep coming but we can choose how we deal with them!

A lion was out one day searching for food. He hadn’t had much luck and was getting hungry. His tummy was rumbling very loudly.

Suddenly he spotted a mouse dashing through the grass. The lion swiped with his great paw and grabbed the mouse in his claws. It was only a small mouse but would be better than nothing.

‘Oh please, Sir,’ said the mouse. ‘Don’t eat me. Great and honourable lion, King of all beasts. Please let me go. I have six children at home who will have no father if you kill me.’

The lion was flattered by all this reverence. For a moment he wavered. Then he felt the hunger pangs again and opened his mouth wide.

‘I beg you,’ said the mouse. ‘If you spare my life I will save yours one day.’

Instead of eating the mouse, the lion threw back his head and laughed. ‘You, save me? That’s impossible.’ But he was so amused at the mouse that he did let him go and the mouse scampered back to his family.

Some weeks later some huntsmen came into the jungle. They trapped the lion in a net and pulled tight so that he couldn’t move and then left him beside a tree. At the end of the day they intended to come back for him. Then who knows what would happen.

Along came the little mouse, skipping and scampering. It stopped short when it saw the trapped lion. Then it ran up and began gnawing through the net. It was a big job for a little mouse but all day long it chewed and chewed and never once stopped for a rest. At last the mouse chewed through the last bit of net and the lion was free. It was almost sunset and the huntsman were due back any minute.

The lion bent his big head down to the mouse. ‘Thank you little mouse,’ he said. ‘You kept your word and saved my life, even though I thought it was impossible.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did the lion show goodness?

How did the mouse show goodness?

What made the lion think it would be impossible for the mouse to save his life?

Think of some things that you are good at – your talents – how can they be used to do good? Do you use them in this way? Why? Why not?

Should we be good/do good? What are your reasons and evidence?

Do we sometimes do good in order to help ourselves?

Are there times when we should not be good/do good? When? Why?

What is ‘good’?

Philosophy 14: Poster Activity

Before the lesson, have a piece of A2 paper for each group of three (or 4) pupils. Some coloured pens should also be available. Background: A philosopher tries to see the unity in diversity – the common elements that bind together apparently disparate things. Today the children will be considering what it is that makes human beings the same, amidst the apparent differences.

1. Practise the exercise.
2. Recall last week’s story and discuss whether the children had found any evidence of ‘Goodness’. Have any of their actions fallen into this category? Why did they do them? How did they feel?
3. The first task is to draw a large circle (as large as possible) on the sheet, then a smaller circle inside the first one. This second will be about the size of a side plate. Inside the small circle write the word ‘Same’, and inside the large circle write ‘Different’.

Different

Same

1. The rules for the activity are that everyone must contribute to the process, and everyone must be able to report back – talk about what is on the poster.
2. Get the children to leave their poster and explain to them the rules above. Use the words ‘Unity’ and ‘Diversity’ if appropriate, but certainly explain the concepts of things being the same, and being different. Explain that today they are going to be thinking about what is the same, and what is different about human beings (people). Call for one or two examples in each category.
3. Working in their groups, children now discuss the question, and write what they agree on in the appropriate spaces.
4. After a suitable time (15 minutes), ask everyone to spend two minutes looking at their poster, and ensuring they know what is meant by what is written on it.
5. Have each group report back. Encourage those listening to seek clarification if necessary.
6. To close the session, ask children to consider, what for them, have been important new ideas today.

• Why do we often see the differences first?
• Is it important to see similarities? Why?
• Would understanding the similarities make us treat people differently? How? Why?
• How can we make use of what we have discovered today?

1. Discuss what a suitable ‘Thought for the Week’ could be, from the posters that have been done. They should work around the themes of ‘same’ and ‘different’.
2. Display the posters.

Philosophy 15: The Fox in the Well

1. Remind the class that the exercise reinforces and strengthens the ability to give attention, which is related to the ability to learn. Practise the focusing exercise together.
2. Recall the activity from last week and let someone explain it again. Does anyone have any new observations or thoughts about it? Discuss any examples.
3. Read the story of ‘The Fox in the Well’. Discuss the content and any words that are unclear.
4. Ask the children to think about the story and think of four things that happened in the story, in the correct order. They should share these with a partner.
5. Use the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
6. Make sure the ‘Thought for the Week’ is fully understood.

The Fox in the Well

As the fox was walking along, not looking where he was going, he fell into a well. There was a little water in it so he had a drink and then wondered how he was going to get out. The walls of the well were sheer. He walked around it and examined the sides to see if there were any ledges on which to climb out.

As he looked up, a face peered at him over the edge. It was a goat. He could tell that because it had a long beard and two curly horns.

‘What are you doing down there,’ asked the goat.

‘I’m having a drink,’ said the fox. ‘The water is wonderful. Really tasty. And it’s so cool down here’.

It was a hot day and the goat was very thirsty, so he looked longingly at the water. ‘It is very nice water,’ went on the fox. ‘Cool and . . . and . . . very wet. There’s plenty to share – enough for both of us’.

‘Then I’ll come down,’ said the goat, unable to resist. And without another word he jumped into the well.

After he had drunk some water the goat was feeling much refreshed. He looked up the sheer sides of the well. ‘How can we get out?’ he asked.

‘Easy,’ said the fox. ‘You stand with your hooves against the side and I will climb up your back. When I’m out I will help you.’

‘Are you sure that will work’, said the goat. ‘It’s difficult for me to get a grip with my hooves’.

‘Of course it will work. Trust me’, said the fox.

So the goat stood on his hind legs and tucked his head in and the fox climbed up his back and then could just manage to get out of the well.

‘Help me out now’, called the goat, his voice echoing. The fox looked back down the well and grinned.

‘Don’t you know that you should never jump in without looking for a way out? What a foolish goat you are.’

And he ran off into the forest.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Was the goat any sillier than the fox? Do you have evidence?

In this story, and other old stories, foxes are often shown to be cunning. What does this mean? Why might story-tellers have made out that foxes are cunning?

Do you think the goat should have trusted the fox? Why? Why not?

How could the story have ended if the fox had been able to be trusted?

What do you think made the fox act as he did?

Can your friends trust you? Can everyone trust you? Do you have evidence?

What is trust?

Do we need trust? Why? In what ways?

Thought for the Week

Look at the things you do during the week and think about trust- at home, at school, playing games. Can other people trust you?

Philosophy 16: Snakes and Ladders

Before the session, ensure that the Snakes and Ladders boards have been photocopied on to paper or card, and that there are enough pairs of dice. Have three or four players per game.

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention. Remind pupils that there should not be any tension – rather, they should rest in the sharp focus of the present moment.
2. Recall the story about the Fox in the Well, and see if the children have noticed anything about trust. Discuss any observations.
3. Tell the children that today they are going to play ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and give out the necessary equipment.
4. Without giving any instructions (other than putting the pupils in groups), ask them to start their game.
5. After 10 – 15 minutes playing, move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

36	37	38	39	40 Finish
35	34	33	32	31
26	27	28	29	30
25	24	23 Miss a turn	22	21
16	17	18	19	20
15	14	13	12	11
6	7	8	9 Miss a turn	10
5	4	3	2	1 Start

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did you feel when you were told we were going to play ‘Snakes and Ladders’ today?

Did you know how to play. If you didn’t, what did you do? How did you feel?

How did you choose who went first, second etc.? How did the first person feel? How did the last person feel? It is important to remember what feelings you had – not make them up now.

Did everyone play fairly? If yes, why?

If someone didn’t play fairly, can that person say why? What was the result? Did the person change their behaviour? Why?

If you were winning during the game, how did you feel? Why? Could you have been winning and have felt differently? What could have been the causes?

If you were losing, how did you feel? Why? Could you have been losing and have felt differently? What could have been the reason?

If you were the final winner, what were your feelings? How did you feel towards the other players.

If you were a loser, how did you feel? How did you feel towards the winner? Why?

Did it really matter who won or lost? Why?

Can thinking about the way we feel during the playing of games change the way we might play next time? Why? How?

Philosophy 17: Whose Turn is It?

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. Introduce the story and read ‘Whose Turn Is It?’ Discuss the concept of ‘theme’ with the class, and how it is possible to have an ‘inner’ meaning to a story – like a moral in a traditional fairy tale. In this way the story could be considered in relation to its content and also in relation to a theme.
3. Ask two or three questions about content, then ask children to formulate one. Give time. Then working in pairs, they each ask a partner their question.
4. Ask children to consider what the theme could be, and again give time for this. They should again share this with their partner, this time giving reasons as to why they consider it a main theme.
5. As a class, children should now feedback their ideas so that a web of themes can be built up on the board. Draw links between similar or linked ideas, and likewise link opposing ideas but in a different colour.
6. Consider, as a class, the range of themes and ideas shown. Linking with the theme in the ‘Questions for Thinking’, now move to them as an aid to developing the dialogue.
7. At the end of the dialogue, consider again the main ideas from the dialogue as against those on the board. For example, how many were investigated in the enquiry?
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’, and ensure all understand what to look for.

Whose Turn is It?

Mum had broken her arm. Just like that. She’d tripped over the back door step and fallen onto her arm on the concrete.

Jamie had seen her. He ran and called his older sister, Joss. She knew what to do. She helped mum up and pinned up the sleeve of her jumper to support the arm. Joss had done First Aid at Guides.

‘Well done, Joss,’ said mum. ‘That feels more comfortable.’ ‘Everyone should learn what to do in an emergency,’ said Joss.

Joss had offered to lend him her First Aid Manual but Jamie couldn’t be bothered reading it. He was only eight anyway. He could always ask someone else to help.

Mr Martin next door had driven mum to hospital where they had put a plaster on her arm.

‘Now, I’ll need some help,’ said mum the next day. ‘There are a lot of things I can’t do with only one hand. You can take it in turns to help.’

Joss went first.

Jamie went round to his mate, Ahmed’s house. Mum had said to be home at six o’clock but Jamie forgot to look at his watch and it was half past when he got home.

‘You’re late!’ said Joss. ‘Come and have your dinner.’

She was really getting bossy! As if she was taking mum’s place. ‘Your turn to help tomorrow,’ said mum.

But the next day Ahmed lent him a video and he started to watch it. ‘Come and help, please,’ called mum.

Jamie pretended not to hear.

‘I can’t open this tin with one hand,’ called mum.

The film was getting really exciting. Jamie couldn’t leave it now.

Later Jamie began to feel hungry and went into the kitchen. Mum was doing the washing up with her good hand. Joss was drying the dishes.

‘Where’s my dinner?’ asked Jamie

‘It was your turn to help today,’ said mum.

‘You have to do your share,’ said Joss. ‘You can’t just leave it to other people.’

‘We were going to have sausages and mashed potato and baked beans,’ said mum. ‘Your favourite.’

Jamie’s mouth began to water.

‘I waited for you to help me peel the potatoes,’ said mum. ‘And I waited for you to help me open the tin of beans.’

Jamie’s eyes gleamed.

‘But all I could make on my own was a TV dinner in the microwave and there were only two left.’

‘So?’ said Jamie. ‘Where is my dinner?’

‘There’s a bit of ham in the fridge,’ said mum. ‘You’ll have to make yourself a sandwich.’

Jamie pulled a face.

‘And tomorrow is your turn to help,’ said mum. ‘And it’s your responsibility to be here on time.’

Jamie made sure he was.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think it was fair that Jamie’s mum treated him like that? Should she just have shouted at him?

Do you think Jamie helped the next day? Why?

Are there other reasons that Jamie should have helped – not just because he wanted a nice meal?

Is there anything else that could have happened besides just taking turns?

What makes you help other people? Is it for something for you, or something for the other person?

What would your life be like if other people didn’t help you?

How do you feel when you help others? Do you have examples? (Note: Real, not imaginary!)

What makes us not help others sometimes?

Thought for the Week

Look at your own actions during the week. Do you help others? How? Why?

Philosophy 18: Giving Attention Activity

Background note: Consciousness (giving attention to something), is very powerful. In the physical world we are aware and understand more of something if we consciously give it attention. In the mental world, ideas ‘grow’ (seem larger and more important), when given attention. Can this be used to positive effect?

For this session, some flowers (a picture, or something generally considered beautiful) some rubbish (or something generally considered not nice or beautiful), and if possible a balloon, will be needed.

1. Practise the focusing exercise, directing children’s attention to the sense of sight. Remind them that in doing this practice of being in the present, things seen should not be named – just seen and known.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’, and discuss any new evidence that has been observed about ‘fairness’ and taking turns.
3. Discuss with the children, the concept of ‘attention’ and giving attention to something. Relate it to their experiences during the exercise.
4. Ask the pupils to look at the flowers – just to give them attention. What did they notice? (They may give observations such as ‘They seemed brighter’, ‘They were beautiful’, ‘They made me feel happy’, and so on.) Question people, in order to get accurate descriptions and observations.
5. Repeat the exercise with the other item.
6. Let the class watch as you blow up the balloon. (Use a pump) Pose the children a problem – ‘If the air going into the balloon represents our attention to something, what is this showing us?’ Discuss this, allowing dialogue to develop if possible. (Note: If we give attention to something it becomes clearer, we know more about it, ideas become ‘bigger’ or your skills grow, just like the balloon, and so on.)

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Can we make use of this knowledge?

How might it affect our learning?

When would be good times in school to really focus our attention?

How might it affect the way we treat people?

If we think nasty thoughts about someone, what is the effect?

If we think nice thoughts about someone, what is the effect?

Can we choose what we give attention to?

Close by asking children to consider what for them was the most important idea to emerge in the dialogue.

Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

Try to see the kinds of things to which you give attention. Practise focusing attention – for example when doing a piece of writing, playing football, or perhaps a test.

Philosophy 19: The Easter Egg

1. Practice the exercise in focusing and calming.
2. Recall last week’s session and have someone describe the activity. What was its purpose, and were any strategies used?
3. Introduce and read ‘The Easter Egg Hunt’.
4. Get children to make up three questions about the story and then in groups of three or four, ask each other the questions.
5. Give thinking time so that everyone can consider what they think is the main point of the story. In the same small groups, share the ideas, giving reasons for their choices. Children can question or ‘challenge’ if they think someone’s evidence is not very robust.
6. Ask each group to choose what they think is the best idea, then put these forward to the class. Note these on the board. With everyone’s attention on the five or six ideas gathered, ask pupils how it would be possible to change each one into a philosophical question. (If necessary, tell children the nature of a philosophical question. Give an example, ‘Why are some people greedy?’). One by one, write down the questions that emerge from the ideas.
7. Stimulate the dialogue using the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
8. For a closure to the session, let the group collectively trace the route of the dialogue. (That is, what were the ideas at the beginning, how did they develop and change, and what was the finishing position?)
9. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Easter Egg

It was nearly Easter. School had broken up for two weeks and Danny was looking forward to Saturday very much. Mum had said he could have an Easter Egg hunt in their garden and he could invite his friends round.

Danny talked about it so much that everyone got a bit fed up. ‘Oh, not the egg hunt again!’ complained his older sister, Rachel. ‘We’re having chocolate crème eggs,’ said Danny.

‘In my day we had hard boiled eggs which we painted,’ said Granddad. Danny turned up his nose. ‘What if you find two or three eggs?’ he said.

‘How could you eat them all?’

‘Better for your teeth,’ said Granddad.

At last Saturday came. Mum had the eggs all ready in a box. Danny gazed at the bright shiny paper wrapping and then counted them silently, pointing to each one as he did so. There were ten!

‘You get your nose out. I’m going to hide them in a minute,’ said his mum. ‘I’m going round to Barry’s house,’ said Danny, and went out of the door.

But he didn’t go to his friend’s house. Instead he hid behind the hedge where he had a good view of the garden. He saw his mum come out with the box of eggs in her hand. Then he watched as she carefully hid the eggs, one by one. Soon all ten were hidden and Danny grinned to himself and skipped off down the road.

‘Mum’s hiding the eggs now,’ he said to Barry. ‘She sent me here so I wouldn’t see where she hid them.’

Barry grinned and made smacking noises as he licked his lips.

It was fine but cold that afternoon. Danny, Barry and three friends stood at the back door, their eyes darting round the garden in case any of the eggs were glinting in the sunlight, waiting to be found.

‘Ready! Go!’ said mum.

They all dashed forward and then scattered to all corners of the garden.

Of course, Danny knew where all the eggs were and in no time he had five of them.

The funny thing was, it was no fun knowing where they were.

Everyone looked at him trying to hold them all and his mum frowned.

Barry had found two eggs, Lindsay one and Joanna one. Poor Mike had none at all and was looking very disappointed, almost in tears.

‘Well,’ said mum. ‘I think you should give one of yours to Mike, Danny. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?’

Suddenly the excitement had gone out of the afternoon. The happy faces of Danny’s friends were now gloomy. Danny gave Mike an egg and one by one his friends went home.

Some big dark clouds rolled over the sky and it began to rain.

‘Let’s go inside, Danny,’ said mum. ‘You’ll want to enjoy your Easter eggs.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

What made Danny hide behind the hedge?

Why do you think the game was no fun for Danny?

How do you think Danny felt when he had five eggs? Why?

How do you think Danny’s friends felt?

Do you think his friends would come back for any other party or game? Why?

Danny was greedy and he cheated. What was the effect of him cheating?

What is cheating? (Gain several different examples).

Why do people cheat? Do you cheat?

Some people don’t cheat. What do you think stops them from cheating?

Is it easier to cheat or not cheat? Why? What makes you say so?

What would happen if everyone cheated? Didn’t cheat?

Thought for the Week

During the week, look to see whether you are greedy or not. If you are, why are you? Is it possible to be greedy about just some things?

Philosophy 20: Connect Words

Before the lesson, have a piece of A4 paper for each pupil and a piece of A2 paper for each group of four.

1. Practise the calming exercise. Ask the children what they noticed going on in their mind, for example, did they drift off into daydreams for long periods or were they able to stay quite focused?
2. Remember the story ‘Albert Einstein’, and enquire as to what has been observed about wonder and wanting to learn. Did anyone notice particular things that they are curious about or want know about?
3. Tell the children that today they are going to play a game of connecting words and ideas.
4. Move to the instructions for the game.
5. Complete the report-back, getting groups to discuss the game, how they found it, any difficulties. Did they feel they got better at linking ideas as the game progressed?
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Connect words – activity

This game can be played individually to begin with, then as a group game. It is about crea- tive thinking, and making connections. The players must have reasons for connecting one word with another, and if the connection is too tenuous, the other players may challenge.

1. Individual Game. Each pupil has an A4 piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Someone in the class volunteers a starting word, for example ‘television’. Everyone writes the word at the bottom of the page and draws a circle or balloon around it.
2. On their own, each child thinks of another word that for him/her is in some way concep- tually connected to the first. For pupil A this could be ‘cartoons’, because s/he likes to watch cartoons. S/he draws a short line from ‘television’ then writes ‘cartoons’. Pupil B thinks of a television programme because s/he likes to watch that programme. S/he writes the word on her paper and similarly connects them with a short line.
3. The game continues, with children making as many connections as possible, but always being aware of why they are linked. They should try to be creative in their links, and not always state the obvious.
4. The lines of connection may branch if a dual or multiple concept is thought of – ‘broth- ers and sisters’. This may lead to two branches ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ or may result in the names of each brother and sister being named, with new lines being started by each name.
5. Group Game. Children should be put into groups of four and have an A2 sheet of paper. Each person puts forward a starting word and the group decide on which one they would like to start the game.
6. The word is written in the middle of the sheet this time, and each player says their first connecting word, and gives their connection.

Television

This process has started four lines of development. From now on, when it is a player’s turn, the person may add a word to any one of the lines of development, not just their own. On connecting the word, the pupil must say what the connection is. As in the first game, the other players may challenge if they think the reason is too weak, and the group takes a vote as to whether or not to allow the word.

1. Once players become a little practised, they may think of a word that fits more than one line at the same time. These can count for points, with two simultaneous connections being two points, three connections being three points, and so on. When making multiple connections, pupils should draw each connection with a line. The player who makes the most points during the game is the winner.

For example:

balloon rubber

ball rubber

Thought for the Week

During the week, see how ideas are linked. If you have a problem to solve, try thinking of as many linked ideas as possible to give you possible solutions.

(This would get two points)

Philosophy 21: Beauty and the Beast

1. Practise the exercise, asking pupils what they observed about the sense of touch. The important thing is not to list the things realised through touch, but rather that one can be brought into the present moment through touch.
2. Introduce and read the story ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
3. As in previous weeks, ask the pupils to consider an important theme in the story, and why they think it is so. Give time.
4. Working in small groups of four or five, children should discuss the identified themes and choose the one they think is the strongest.
5. Briefly returning to work as a class, review the nature of philosophical questions.
6. Working with their group theme, each group should now turn it into a philosophical question. After a suitable time, these should be written on the board. If necessary, groups can give any explanation of their choice.
7. Making a link between questions on the board (and possibly using an appropriate one to begin) use the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate dialogue.
8. To close, connect the questions on the board, and what has been covered through the enquiry.
9. Introduce the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Beauty and the Beast

The traditional story of Beauty and the Beast reminds us that there is more to beauty than just the outward physical. It reminds us to look beyond the obvious before making judgements about things. There is also beauty of conduct – the way we behave, with all the associated feelings and attitudes.

There was once a merchant who had three daughters. Just before he set off on a busi- ness trip, he asked them what they would like him to bring back for them.

‘A necklace please, father,’ said the eldest.

‘A gold chain for me please,’ said the middle daughter.

But the youngest daughter, whose name was Bella, just shook her head. ‘I want nothing, father,’ she said. ‘Just bring yourself back safely.’

‘Nonsense,’ said their father. ‘I want to bring you a gift.’

Bella thought for a moment. ‘Then I would like a rose, please.’

The merchant went about his business and he bought the necklace and the gold chain for his two eldest daughters but decided to leave the rose until last so that it would be fresh. Then he forgot about it.

He was almost home when he suddenly remembered the rose and started to look around for somewhere to buy one. As he turned a corner he saw a beautiful garden and there, in the centre of a circle of lawn, was a rose bush laden with blooms.

The merchant got off his horse, walked through the great wrought iron gates and stepped onto the grass circle. Surely the owners wouldn’t miss one rose. He chose a deep red rosebud and plucked it off the bush.

CRASH! A loud noise filled his ears and there, in front of him, stood a hideous beast. Its eyes were red and glaring, its lips curled back from a cluster of pointed grey teeth. Three horns protruded from the green scaly skin of its head and long strings of saliva dripped from its black tongue.

‘Thief!’ growled the beast. ‘You are stealing my roses.’ The merchant explained about the gift for his daughter. ‘That is no excuse! Your life is forfeit.’

‘Oh please,’ begged the merchant. ‘Please spare my life. I have three daughters to support and care for. I am really sorry for stealing your rose.’

‘I shall spare your life on one condition,’ said the beast. ‘Seven days from now you must bring me your youngest daughter.’

The merchant arrived home to a great welcome from his daughters and gave them their gifts, but the youngest daughter could tell that something was wrong and he was unhappy. Eventually he told her about the beast and the condition it imposed to spare his life.

‘I will go, father,’ said Bella, bravely. So the next day they set off.

Like her father, Bella was shocked when she saw the beast and could hardly bare to look at his ugliness. The beast told the merchant that he could visit Bella every week and that he meant her no harm.

Bella was shown to her luxurious rooms and over the next few weeks she had everything she wanted. She only had to ask for something out loud and some invisible servants brought it to her. The beast hardly ever appeared. Bella spent the long days walking in the vast gardens or reading books.

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But Bella began to get lonely. Apart from seeing her father or sisters once a week she never saw anyone else at all.

On one of the rare times when the beast appeared, Bella asked him to walk with her in the garden. Then she told him about her father and sisters and of her mother who had died when she was a child.

Bella talked more and more with the beast. He was so kind and thoughtful that she lost her fear of him and the walks in the garden became a daily event that she looked forward to. She told him about her life and her interests and her hopes.

Then one day the beast did not appear. Bella felt really disappointed and she waited an hour before going to look for him. She searched the whole great house, looking in rooms she had never been in before, but she couldn’t find the beast.

Then, as she passed an open window, she heard cries and groans of pain coming from the front garden. Down the stairs she ran, through the front door and out to the very rosebush from which her father had plucked the rose. There was the beast, lying on the ground with blood pouring from a great wound in his chest. He was gasping for breath and twisting in agony.

Bella fell on her knees beside him. ‘What’s happened? Who did this to you?’

‘The people of the village,’ whispered the beast. ‘They think I am evil. They don’t like me living here.’

Frantically she tore off a piece of her skirt and tried to staunch the flow of blood. ‘Oh please don’t die, beast,’ she wept. ‘Please don’t die. I love you so much.’ There was a flash of bright light and suddenly a prince stood before her, his handsome face smiling with love and gratitude. ‘You have broken the spell!’ he said.

Bella wiped her eyes and stared at him in bewilderment.

‘I was enchanted by an evil magician,’ explained the prince. ‘And the spell could only be broken if a maiden declared her love for me of her own free will. You did that. Ugly as I was, you still loved me.’

Bella and the prince were married and . . . Lived . . . happily . . . ever . . . after!

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

• 1. What do you think made Bella say she would go to live at the Beast’s house?
  2. Was this decision brave or foolish? Give reasons for your opinion.
  3. How did Bella’s relationship with the Beast change? What was the cause of the change?
  4. When Bella said she loved the Beast what do you think it was that she loved?
  5. Has anyone ever changed what they thought about someone once they knew them better?
  6. Are there different ways of thinking that someone is beautiful? What are they?
  7. Are there different types of beauty? (If children need help with ideas – beautiful ideas, beautiful conduct, beautiful things we appreciate through the senses.)
  8. When we say someone or something is beautiful, what is it we mean? Are we clear about what we mean?
  9. What do you think beauty is?

Thought for the Week

During the week, try to observe as many different kinds of beauty as you can. Is there anything that is the same about them?

Philosophy 22: Truth or Lie?

1. Do the calming exercise. Ask the children for observations on what was experienced. Try to determine if they are aware of the focus of their attention. The aim is to be aware of the present moment.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’ from last week, and seek observations or thoughts on beauty. What have pupils noticed?
3. Tell the class that this week they are going to have a story about a class game. Read ‘Truth or Lie?’
4. Ask the class what they think is the main theme of the story. Give time for this, then ask them to turn the theme into a philosophical question. Again, give adequate time.
5. Working in groups of four or five, pupils should share their questions, then decide on which is the strongest, which will be their group question. If necessary, the group can take a vote in order to find the question.
6. As a class, the groups report back, giving their question and reasoning. The questions should be listed on the board. The class now vote on the question they would most like to explore through enquiry. The person who thought of that question begins the dialogue by stating the question then giving their viewpoint and reasoning.
7. Teachers, if necessary, refer to the types of questions in the section headed ‘Creating Good Dialogue Through Questioning’ at the beginning of the book.
8. If the natural dialogue comes to an end, move to the next favourite question on the board.
9. To close, let the class give suggestions for their own ‘Thought for the Week’.

Truth or Lie?

Mrs Tracker was talking to her Year 1 class about honesty.

‘Sometimes we don’t mean to lie,’ she said. ‘We just exaggerate a little because it makes a better story. Now, what we’ll do tomorrow is, each of you will make a statement and the rest of us will guess whether it’s the truth or a lie. We can question you about it before we make a decision.’

The next morning Toby was the first to put up his hand. ‘Tell us your story, Toby,’ said Mrs Tracker.

‘We have two ducks come to live on our pond,’ said Toby. ‘Where did they come from?’ asked Mike Bonner.

‘They just flew in from the sky,’ said Toby. ‘Mum says they might build a nest and have babies.’

‘Can you stroke them?’ asked Megan Smith.

‘Of course not,’ said Toby. ‘They’re wild. But they don’t fly away when you go near, they just waddle on the lawn and keep their distance.’

‘Well, who thinks this story is true?’ asked Mrs Tracker. Most of the class did.

Toby laughed and shook his head. ‘We don’t have a pond. It happened to my Gran and Granddad though.’

‘Who’s next?’ asked Mrs Tracker. Rosemary put up her hand.

‘My Gran had an elephant come to her house as a guest,’ she said.

There were snorts and laughter from the class. ‘Rubbish!’ said Mike Bonner.

‘Lie!’ shouted Lucy Fame.

Rosemary shook her head. ‘It’s the truth,’ she said.

‘Would anyone like to ask Rosemary any questions?’ asked the teacher. ‘Yeah, did it sit on a chair and have tea?’ asked Lucy.

Everyone laughed.

‘It didn’t have tea,’ said Rosemary. ‘It just had water, and it didn’t sit on a chair.’ ‘Where did it come from?’ asked Jason.

‘A circus,’ said Rosemary.

‘Perhaps you’d better tell us the whole story, Rosemary,’ said Mrs Tracker.

‘In those days a circus had animals,’ began Rosemary. ‘This circus used to come to the town every year and the whole circus would parade down the street to advertise it. A band played and everyone came out to see it. Well, my Gran was a little girl and was just coming home from school and there was the circus parade going along her street, with the elephant at the front. When it got near her house the circus man told Gran that the elephant was very thirsty with all the travelling and did she know where it could get a drink. Gran went and told her mum and they dragged the old tin bath into the garden and filled it with water so the elephant could drink. It drank the whole lot too and then sprayed some on Gran.’

When Rosemary had finished, Mrs Tracker said: ‘Well, everyone, do you think that was the truth or a lie?’

‘The truth!’ they all yelled.

Philosophy 23: The Tortoise and the Hare

1. Remind children of the two-fold importance of ‘the exercise’, that is, for the psychological harmonisation (calming effects) of the body, and for learning to ‘be in the present’. The latter helps develop meta-cognition (knowledge and insight into one’s own thinking) which naturally follows when one is present. Practise the exercise together.
2. Remind pupils of the importance of reflecting on each week’s dialogue and keeping in mind the ‘Thought for the Week’. Important insights and evidence can become apparent at any time.
3. Read the story ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’.
4. The pairs’ work is to examine the meaning of the story through language. This will be a major emphasis for this term. The importance of speaking and listening, in the learning process, should be emphasised to children. The first person should tell the second person what they think the story is saying – its meaning. This can include both literal and ‘inner’ meaning (that is related to theme or philosophical point). When this has finished, the second person evaluates what has been said, and gives their own opinion. For example, ‘I agree with you about . . . but I disagree that . . . I think . . .’ This process should be fully understood by children before they begin.
5. Take two or three examples from pupils, then bridge from an appropriate idea to using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ for the dialogue.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Tortoise and the Hare

This well known fable shows that having patience with something means giving a measured and focused response, and is not to do with seeking a solution through an erratic, irrational expenditure of energy.

Hare was always making fun of Tortoise.

‘You’re so slow,’ he would say. ‘Can’t you move faster than that? Look how fast I can run.’ And he would leap away over the fields in a flurry of grey fur.

Sometimes Hare laughed at Tortoise’s shell.

‘It’s silly carrying your house on your back. Why not leave it at home?’ Then he would roar with laughter at his joke.

Tortoise said nothing. One thing tortoises have is patience and he knew that one day he would show Hare that patience and determination were more important than just speed.

One morning Hare was being particularly annoying and Tortoise’s patience ran out. Just for a moment though, just long enough for him to say, ‘I bet I can beat you in a race to the farmhouse.’

Hare fell about laughing. ‘Done!’ he said. ‘I’ll give you half an hour’s start, or even half a day.’ He chuckled again.

All the animals gathered round to watch and Horse drew a line in the dirt with his hoof

‘Ready, steady, go! ’ shouted Horse.

Off they went, Hare leaping and bounding, Tortoise just plodding.

Hare came to some juicy dandelions and stopped for a nibble. He had plenty of time.

Tortoise plodded on. He didn’t try to rush.

Hare met some of his friends in the field and stopped to play. He wasn’t worried. No tortoise could ever beat him.

Tortoise plodded on. He had waited a long time to teach Hare a lesson.

When the sun grew hot Hare sat down under the big oak tree for a while and nodded off to sleep.

Tortoise plodded on. Past Hare he went. He didn’t stop for a rest. He didn’t stop for food. He was going to win this race.

Hare woke up. He didn’t know that Tortoise had passed him. Now he was too hot to run so he just ambled along confidently.

Tortoise plodded on. He wasn’t hot. His shell shaded his body. Now he could see the barn. Was he going to win, or would Hare come leaping past at the last minute? Tortoise didn’t stop to look round. He would get there.

It was only as Tortoise plodded the last few steps towards the barn, that Hare spotted him, a small moving dot in the distance ahead. He sprang forward, but it was too late.

Tortoise had been determined and nothing had distracted him along the way. He had won the race and at last silenced Hare’s teasing forever. It had been worth waiting for this moment.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Tortoise’s patience stopped for a moment and he challenged Hare to a race. Have you ever had an occasion when you were being patient, then (as is sometimes said) your patience ran out?

Can anyone say why their patience stopped? What made you change?

Can patience actually ‘run out’? What actually happens?

Can you describe the differences in how the Hare and the Tortoise each approached the race? Think about their attitudes.

What sort of attitude would you say is connected with patience?

Where does patience come from?

Can you get more patience or does it stay the same?

Why do some people seem to have more patience than others? How are they different?

What is patience?

What do people mean when they say, ‘Patience is a virtue?’

Is patience always good (a virtue)?

Thought for the Week

Watch during the week to see if you are patient with other people. If you find yourself not being patient, try to see what is stopping you.

Philosophy 24: Banner Activity

Before the session, have a piece of A2 paper ready for each group, as well as some felt pens.

1. Practise the exercise, and praise the children who were obviously connected to the present moment.
2. Referring to last week’s story, what have children noticed about patience, either in themselves or in others. Was anything learned about how it could be developed?
3. Recall the poster activity last term, when ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ aspects of being a human being were discussed then depicted on the poster. Allow the children to say what they remember of these aspects.
4. In three’s, let the children discuss each other’s positive and good qualities. Each child can only speak of the other two, not themselves. The list should be refined to the best two or three qualities of each person.
5. On an A4 piece of paper, the groups should design a logo or picture which graphically portrays (and sums up) the qualities of their group.
6. Once the design has been complete, it can be transferred to a banner shaped piece of paper (1/2 an A2). The banners can be displayed, to remind the children of the qualities.
7. To close the session, ask pupils what, for them, was a new idea they have heard today, and what had they learned from the activity.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

Look to see what qualities people have. What do you see of your own qualities? How do they affect other people?

Philosophy 25: Fair Share

1. Practise the focusing exercise, in particular drawing children’s attention to the importance of listening.
2. Recall last week’s ‘Thought for the Week’ and see what children have observed about it. Does anyone have more evidence or new observations?
3. Read ‘Fair Share’, then practise again the examination of the meaning through articulating it – as in Session 1. If possible, children who did not have first turn in Session 1 should do so today. They explain what they understand the meaning of the story to be, then the second person evaluates and replies. Remind children of any appropriate protocols such as ‘I disagree with you about . . . , because . . . , I think . .

.’ (For use as appropriate).

1. Hear two or three examples from children, then bridge from an appropriate one to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate the dialogue.
2. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Fair Share

Judy jumped up and down with excitement.

‘We’re going on a picnic!’ she shouted, and raced upstairs to tell her sister Iona.

‘I don’t want to go’, said Iona. ‘I’m going round to Sarah’s house and we’re going to watch a video.’

‘We’re going to the river, ‘ said Judy. ‘You like the river. We can swim.’ Iona looked irritably at her four year old sister. ‘Go away,’ she said.

‘You’re coming Iona,’ shouted Mum up the stairs. ‘Come and give me a hand. I’ve got to feed Stuart before we go. Everyone must do their share.’

Stuart was their baby brother. Iona sighed and went downstairs.

While Mum fed Stuart, Dad got the car out and packed the folding chairs and table. Then he went and fetched the picnic box down from the loft. Judy got her swimsuit and beach ball and put them in the car.

Iona didn’t do very much.

Mum put Stuart in his stroller and came into the kitchen.

‘You could have started the picnic,’ she said to Iona, and began to prepare it herself.

It was a bright and sunny day and when they reached the river Iona began to cheer up a bit. It was better to be here than indoors watching a video, but she would never admit it.

Dad set up the table and chairs and carried the picnic box to the table while Mum settled Stuart and spread the tablecloth. Judy took the food out of the box and put it on the table.

Iona put on her swimsuit and went to test the water in the river. Then she waded along the edge collecting shiny pebbles. She caught a glimpse of a kingfisher further downstream and went to see if she could see it. Then some squabbling ducks caught her attention.

At last, feeling hungry, she wandered back to where her family were already eating.

She looked for a hard-boiled egg, but there were none left.

She looked for a sausage roll but they had all gone too. The picnic box was almost empty.

‘It’s not fair!’ wailed Iona. ‘You haven’t left me any. I’m hungry’.

‘It’s not fair that you didn’t help get the picnic ready,’ said her Mum. ‘It’s not fair that you let other people do your share of the work, but you expect a share of the food!’ Then Mum reached for a plastic box behind a tree.

‘You’re lucky we’re not as selfish as you, and we saved you some.’

She handed the box to Iona. Inside was her share of the picnic. Iona sat down quietly and began to eat.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think it was right to play the trick on Iona? Was it fair?

Think about sharing. How does a family work? Why?

Do you do your fair share? At home? At school? Do you have evidence?

Should we share tasks and work? Why?

What does ‘fair’ mean?

Is fair always the same? (Does it mean the same thing in different circumstances?)

Does working together have consequences? What are they and what is your evidence?

What stops us sometimes working together, and doing our fair share?

Thought for the Week

Try to see whether you cooperate with others at home and school. Do you do your fair share? Why? Why not?

Philosophy 26: Design a Game Activity

1. Ensure that before the session, copies are made of the blank board – one per group of four.
2. Practise the focusing exercise.
3. Working in groups of four or five (of mixed ability), the task is to design a game. Tell the children that the object is to use the board to design a game. They can make up the object of the game and the rules. This will need discussion, but try not to give ideas, as this game is to promote creative thinking and team working.
4. Give the pupils 20 to 30 minutes, as necessary. If a group has absolutely no idea how to begin, give them a direction and let them work from there. Don’t give them a complete plan.
5. Move to the Report-back and ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure everyone understands the ‘Thought for the Week’.

REPORT-BACK

1. Get each group to have two people report back on how they set about designing the game. What did they first do/decide? What they did next, and so on. They should not describe the game, only the design process. (Having two people makes sure all are involved and contributing.)
2. Allow for questions from other pupils after each group report-back. (The teacher should also probe further into what went on, through careful questioning.)
3. The other two pupils from each group should now explain their game, and its concept and rules.
4. Pupils may seek further clarification about the games and how to play them, through questioning. They may also offer suggestions for improvement.

36	37	38	39	40
35	34	33	32	31
26	27	28	29	30
25	24	23	22	21
16	17	18	19	20
15	14	13	12	11
6	7	8	9	10
5	4	3	2	1

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did you feel when first asked to design a game? What was the cause of these feelings?

Did the feelings change as you carried on with the task? How? What was the cause of the change?

How did you feel when you had finished? Why?

• 1. Did you feel confident that your game was a good one? (Probe this with further questions.)
  2. Did you feel confident in reporting back to the class? Why? Why not? (Further probe the associated feelings and their causes. Was it reasonable to hold these feelings?)

Thought for the Week

Working in a team is often more effective than on your own. What other situations can you notice during the week where working together is very effective?

Philosophy 27: The Emperor’s New Clothes

1. When doing the exercise, it is possible to ‘watch’ thoughts in mind, as well as out through the senses. This ‘watching’ is from a stillpoint and not being ‘lost’ in the ideas/thoughts. This is related to developing the ability to give attention.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’ and discuss anything the children have discovered about teamwork. Praise any examples that they may have.
3. Read ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. As in earlier sessions, children should now work in pairs to examine the meaning of the story – both literal and philosophical. Use the technique practised in earlier sessions, with one person articulating the meaning then the second of the pair evaluating and responding. The importance of this process of articulating aloud in the learning process, cannot be over-emphasised.
4. Hear several children reporting back their opinions and reasons then bridge from a suitable idea to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
5. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

None of us wants to be thought stupid, and the emperor and his subjects were no exceptions. We all sometimes pretend to know or understand things we don’t know – but fortunately without such embarrassing consequences!

There was nothing the Emperor liked better than clothes, in fact he had a set for every hour of the day. He spent all his money on costumes of the very finest cloth and loved to take part in processions along the streets to show them off to his people.

One day two weavers arrived in the city proclaiming that they could weave a very special sort of fine cloth which was as light as a spider’s web and made of the very best thread to be found in the whole world. The special feature of this material was that it appeared invisible to all incompetent and stupid people and could therefore only be seen by those who were clever and wise.

The Emperor thought that this would be a wonderful way of showing up those of his courtiers who were not fit to hold their jobs so he ordered a suit of clothes to be made from this fine fabric.

The weavers ordered silk and satin and gold thread and demanded a lot of money, which they stashed away. Then they got to work on their empty looms, pretending to weave.

The Emperor became impatient after a while and although he did not consider himself stupid, he was a little afraid to go himself to see how the weaving was getting on, so he sent his old minister of weavers.

There sat the weavers at their looms, their arms going this way and that as if they were spinning. The minister of weavers could not see anything, because, of course, there was nothing to see, but he did not want to admit it.

‘Do you not like this fine cloth?’ asked one of the weavers. ‘Just look at the colours! Feel the texture.’

‘It is exquisite,’ said the minister of weavers. ‘The Emperor will be delighted.’

A grand procession was arranged and the night before, the weavers stayed up all night so that the clothes would be finished. They cut and sewed in the air and everyone was very impressed with their hard work. The clothes were admired constantly.

Finally it was time for the Emperor to be dressed. He stood in front of the weavers who were holding the invisible clothes up for his inspection. The Emperor, of course, was dismayed that he could see nothing, but he didn’t admit it.

‘Please remove your clothes, Sire,’ said one the weavers. The Emperor did so. Then they pretended to fit his shirt, his trousers and his cloak, doing up buttons here and there (there were no zips in those days). Then they stood back admiringly.

‘Oh, what a good fit, Sire!’ said one.

‘Wonderful!’ said the other. ‘The colour suits you admirably.’

The Emperor looked in the mirror, turning this way and that, pretending to admire the clothes.

‘All is ready, Sire!’ cried one of his chamberlains. The Emperor went outside and the procession began. He strode along proudly, two chamberlains behind pretending to carry the train of his cloak.

All the people had heard about this fabulous cloth and they praised the two weavers and admired the clothes.

All except one little girl, who had been away staying with a relative and hadn’t heard about the special cloth.

‘The Emperor has nothing on!’ she shouted.

Her father heard her. ‘The innocent voice of a child,’ he said, and began to tell other people. Soon the cry went up. ‘The Emperor has no clothes on!’

The Emperor knew that they were right but he carried on the procession, his head held high, while his chamberlains still pretended to carry the train that wasn’t there.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why did the weavers play this trick on the Emperor and his people?

Why was the Emperor taken in by the trick?

How do you think the Emperor felt when he couldn’t see the cloth?

The Emperor had a feeling inside that there was no cloth, so why didn’t he trust that feeling? Was that wise?

How do you feel when someone calls you stupid or laughs if you don’t understand something straight away?

Do you think that the person who laughs (in question 5) knows everything? Is that person wise? Why or why not?

The Emperor believed what the weavers said. Do you think you should believe everything that people say? Why or why not? Would that be wise?

Should we believe everything in the newspapers or on television? Why? Why not?

Do you think the writers in newspapers or magazines deliberately lie? Do you have any evidence?

Could there be other reasons for things being not quite true? (for example exaggerated) What are they?

Thought for the Week

Think about what you read and listen to. Do you think it is all true? Why do people say things that are not true? (Note to teacher: Critical examination of a newspaper article as a class would be useful)

Philosophy 28: Musical Activity

This session is further practice at the focusing and listening skills (in relation to music) practised in Block 1.

Before the session choose two pieces of music – a piece of Tchaikovsky (or Liszt) and a piece of Bach. Allow children to hear enough to stretch their attention time, but not to the point of boredom. This may be from five to fifteen minutes, depending on the individuals.

1. Practise the focusing exercise.
2. Ask children what they noticed after thinking about the theme of last week’s story. Were they flattered by anything anyone had said to them? Did they believe everything they were told? Did anyone have any other observation?
3. Introduce the session by asking the children to just listen to the first piece. (It doesn’t matter which one.)
4. Ask the children what they had observed about the listening process. Where was their attention? Were there any ideas in mind? What were they? Was it difficult to focus on the music? Were they only able to listen to it?
5. Now listen to the second piece – with the same instruction.
6. In groups, let the children discuss the pieces. What were their emotional responses? Did they like one better than the other? Why? If they didn’t like them, why not? Why is it hard to just listen?
7. Introduce the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Philosophy 29: David Livingstone

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. What have children noticed about their thoughts during the week? Is it easy or difficult to observe them? Can they be controlled? Why? Why not?
3. Read ‘David Livingstone’, then arrange the pupils into groups of four or five. In the same manner as the previous pair work, one child should begin to articulate the meaning of the story – what is it saying? Next, the other three briefly say what they agree or disagree with, before the second pupil gives their opinion and reasoning. Again, the other three evaluate, and so the process is repeated until each child has had a turn.
4. Ask each group to choose, through discussion, the opinion and reasoning they enjoyed the most. These should then be reported back to the class, and a list made on the board.
5. Draw everyone’s attention to the points on the board, then move to the dialogue through the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’

David Livingstone

Missionary and Explorer (1813-1873)

The air was still and hot. David could feel the sweat soaking his clothes, brought on by the humid climate and his malaria. He was tired. So tired. His work, however, wasn’t finished yet. There were still the slave traders out there. Only a few days ago he had come across a village where many people had been slaughtered, while the rest had been taken as slaves. The young and fit ones.

Now even he was treated with suspicion by many natives he met. Many of his own followers had deserted him and his medicines had been stolen.

Just a few days rest in this village of Ujiji and he would be on his way again. He would find the source of the Nile River if it was the last thing he did. It had taken him years to get this far.

David was just drifting off into a doze again when he suddenly heard shouting outside his hut. It was one of his faithfuls, Susi. She burst in through the doorway.

‘A white man is coming’, she said, panting and pointing up the track.

David rose slowly from his bed and walked to the doorway, shading his eyes against the strong sun.

Sure enough a stranger was approaching the village and had already attracted much attention from the children.

The stranger walked straight up to David, his hand outstretched. ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’, he said, with a smile.

David grasped the man’s hand and nodded.

‘I’m Stanley from the New York Tribune,’ said the man. ‘My, I’m glad to find you! It’s taken a year. The whole world is concerned about you – you’ve been gone six years.’

Was it that long? David thought. Six years trekking across Africa, mapping this great continent and spreading the word of God. Six years away from Scotland and his wife and children.

‘I’ve brought you supplies and medicine,’ said Stanley. ‘You look as though you could use them.’

Soon the two men became good friends and when it was time for Stanley to leave, he tried to persuade David Livingstone to return with him to England, or at least go to the coast where he might have some medical attention.

However Livingstone would not go. For two more years he carried on until he was too weak to walk and the natives had to carry him on a litter. He never did find the source of the Nile, but his exploration made it easier for others who followed later. He was the first European to cross Africa from west to east, and he discovered the Victoria Falls, amongst other important features.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

David Livingstone was trying to do several things. What were they?

What qualities did David show? (Discuss the concept of qualities first, if necessary.)

David kept trying and trying – even though he faced great difficulties. What were the difficulties? What was the consequence of this attitude of persevering? (Explain perseverance if necessary.)

What qualities do you have? What evidence or examples do you have?

Where did you get them from?

What are the consequences of having them?

Can you get new qualities? How? From where?

Do you persevere with tasks or give up easily? Why?

Thought for the Week

Do you persevere (keep trying) when there are difficulties in doing something, or do you give up easily? Watch your actions for evidence.

Philosophy 30: Tower of Hanoi

1. Ensure that before the session, a copy is made of the game – on card if possible.
2. Practise the focusing exercise.
3. Working in pairs, the task is to cut out pieces 1 to 5 from the first sheet. These are then placed in order of size (largest on the bottom) on point ‘A’ on sheet two. Initially, children should only use two or three pieces and put the others to one side.
4. The object of the game is to move the pieces from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ or point ‘C’. That is, to move the pile, in the same order, to another point

Rules:

Only one piece can be moved at a time.

A smaller piece cannot be placed on a larger piece

Each piece may sit at ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ during the process.

1. Once each child has tried it with two pieces, they should describe to their partner what strategy (strategies) they used. If a child or pair cannot do even two pieces, the teacher should help them get started by suggesting a starting strategy.
2. The pupils then move to trying to use three, four then five pieces. They may well not get to five, or even four, but they should try. It is important that at each stage the children should tell their partner what they are doing. Each pair can try to work out a successful strategy between them. If stuck, pupils should revert to the last successful effort (perhaps with three pieces) then try to see how that might be taken to the next level.
3. Finish the session by having a report back on the difficulties encountered, and the strategies used to try to overcome them.

1

2

3

Cut out these shapes

4

5

A

B

C

Philosophy 31: The Monkey and the Crocodile

We started with a very interesting ice breaking exercise. Padmanabh asked all the kids to make a lot of noise. The level of noise was directed by him by raising or lowering his hands. The next ice breaking exercise was to wash your hands with air. The last activity was to put your hands together in a namaste. Close your eyes. And based on instructions press and relax the hands. Next you take them apart and you get them back together. Padmanabhan did the session by getting feedback from students about how they felt after these activities.

 

Next he moved on to a story session. Started by asking students: ‘How would you like to listen to a story?’ Every student raised his hand. Then Padmanabh went on to narrate the story of the monkey and the crocodile.

 

The story was done with a fair amount of interactivity. For example questions would come in like what happens when we take out a heart. After the story telling students were broken into groups of 3 and they were asked to discuss why did they think this story was told to them.

 

Student responses:

To entertain us.

Don’t lie to your friends

Don’t lie

Don’t trust others

Don’t underestimate anyone

 

The story was then revised again by ferreting out the details out from the students by asking questions: What did the crocodile tell the monkey? Is lying good? Did the monkey do the right thing by lying? An interesting kaizen: Those who want to answer, don’t raise your hands, but sit with your hands folded.

 

We then moved on to the philosophical discussion: When do we lie? The answers were interesting:

When we are in trouble

When we want something.

To escape punishment.

When we make a mistake.

When we don’t want to do something.

To make fun

Sometimes we also lie when you want to threaten others

 

Then another question was asked by the moderator: Do we lie to make others happy? Students came up with responses that even if the food cooked is bad, they still praise their mom.

 

Next moderator question: How do you feel after you lie? The response was: we feel bad and possibly afraid. One suggestion from students was that we should lie to friends not parents. Because parents can scold you. One student confessed that when they have a toilet break he goes to play. And when the teacher asked him why he took more time. He mentions that he had to go to number 2 in toilet.

 

The assignment that was given to students during the week was to ask observe when did they lie? When is it bad to lie? One week later another session is planned where students will discuss their experiences.

 

A very interesting way of taking feedback was we use the same hand tricks that had been used at the start of the session. An upheld hand meant a good session; a horizontal hand meant a bad session; a hand held down meant a bad session. They were asked to close their eyes for this exercise. Only one student give an average report the rest thought it was great.

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. Remind children of last week’s game and recall the discussion. Has anyone played it since? Did they find any new strategies?
3. Read ‘The Monkey and the Crocodile’, then arrange the pupils into groups of four or five. In the same manner as the previous pair work, one child should begin to articulate the meaning of the story – what is it saying? Next, the other three briefly say what they agree or disagree with, before the second pupil gives their opinion and reasoning. Again, the other three evaluate, and so the process is repeated until each child has had a turn.
4. Ask each group to choose, through discussion, the opinion and reasoning (from 3) they enjoyed the most. These should then be reported back to the class, and a list made on the board.
5. Draw everyone’s attention to the points on the board, then move to the dialogue through the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Monkey and the Crocodile

A folk tale from Kenya

Once Monkey and Crocodile were really good friends. Monkey lived in a tree right on the banks of the river. It was cool in among the lush green leaves and from there he could look down and watch what was going on. Every day he scampered down the trunk to the ground and drank from the river.

Crocodile lived in the river and often came to lie on the bank and bask in the hot sunshine.

One day when the two friends were talking, Crocodile said, ‘How would you like to come to my home for a feast? We are going to have all sorts of delicious food and I would like to invite you as my friend.’

‘Thank you very much,’ said Monkey. ‘But there’s just one problem. I can’t swim. How can I get there?’

‘No problem,’ said Crocodile. ‘I shall give you a ride on my back.’

So the next day Monkey scrambled onto Crocodile’s back and they set off into the river. When they reached the middle of the river Crocodile said,

‘Our king is very ill. He has been told that the only thing that will make him well again is to eat a monkey’s heart. I am going to take you to him so your heart can be removed and the king will recover.’

Monkey was very frightened at what Crocodile had said. He looked out over the vast water. How could he escape? He couldn’t swim. He must think hard.

At last he said, ‘I would like to help your king but there is a problem. Didn’t you know that monkeys leave their hearts at the top of the tree in which they live? If you take me back I will get it for you.’

So Crocodile turned round and swam back towards the shore. As soon as he was close enough, Monkey leapt off his back and scampered up his tree. Then he picked a raw yage fruit and shouted down to Crocodile, ‘Open your mouth, Crocodile, and I will throw my heart down to you.’

Crocodile opened his mouth wide and Monkey threw down the hard fruit that smashed Crocodile’s teeth.

Monkey laughed. ‘You fool! How could you believe that story! Surely you know that no-one can live without their heart inside them!’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

If monkey was a friend of crocodile’s, why did crocodile plan to give monkey’s heart to the king?

What is a conflict? (Note: This may need some scaffolding)

Crocodile had a conflict between being friends to both monkey and his king. Do you ever have a conflict between being friends to two people? Does anyone have an example?

How do you resolve it – how do you deal with it?

Monkey had to use his thinking skills to get out of a tough situation. Was his plan a good plan? How do you know?

Do you think monkey was wise? Is there any evidence?

Do you think crocodile was wise? Is there any evidence?

Did crocodile know a lot? How do you know?

What is being wise?

Is knowing a lot, the same as being wise? Are they connected? How?

Thought for the Week

Do you use your knowledge wisely? Look at your actions during the week for evidence.

Philosophy 32: Titanic Dog

1. Do the calming exercise.
2. Discuss what ‘day-dreaming’ is, and whether children had noticed if they were dreaming during the exercise. Which seems more real – the dreaming state or the focused one?
3. Explain to the children they are going to use a true story as a stimulus this week. They will be trying to identify any philosophical issues in the story, and then make some philosophical questions. Read ‘Titanic Dog’.
4. Ask two or three questions to ensure the pupils have understood the content of the story.
5. Discuss the nature of philosophical questions. (Refer to glossary if unsure.) Get children to spend time on their own, thinking of what they think is a good theme. They should have reasons for their choice.
6. In pairs, children should discuss their theme and discuss together how the themes could be turned into a philosophical question.
7. Each pair should join together with another pair, and through discussion decide on the best (most interesting) question.
8. Write each group’s question on the board. Review the range of questions provided and ask the children to consider the question they would most like to investigate through enquiry. Take a vote to determine the chosen question.
9. Ask the person who originally put forward the question to begin the dialogue by re- stating their question and putting forward their own view on it.
10. In building the enquiry, remember to use a variety of questions and encourage the children to do the same. Use ideas from ‘The Importance of Skilful Questioning’ section, if necessary.
11. If the dialogue runs out, move to the second favourite question, and so on.
12. Let the children discuss and formulate a ‘Thought for the Week’.

Titanic Dog

Have you heard of the Titanic? It was a big ship which hit an iceberg and sank in 1912. I expect many of you have seen a film about it. Many people drowned, but in amongst the tragedy there were many stories of great bravery and sacrifice.

One story of bravery was not about a person but about an animal – a dog called Rigel.

Rigel was a Newfoundland, which is a very big dog. He belonged to the First Officer. It was the officer’s duty to try to get as many people as possible into the lifeboats. There was chaos on board ship. People had thought the Titanic was unsinkable and didn’t believe that it could be sinking. The First Officer tried to calm the panic and get the lifeboats filled with people and safely lowered into the sea.

Suddenly the ship tipped up and sank very quickly with many people still on board. The First Officer and his dog, Rigel were amongst them.

Rigel did not drown but after the ship had sunk he swam round and round in the freezing water looking for his master. He never found him.

Some time later another ship arrived to search for survivors. It was called the SS Car- pathia.

One of the lifeboats full of people was right in its path but as it was night they couldn’t be seen. The people were too cold and weak now to shout or wave their arms and the Carpathia steamed towards them.

Rigel was cold and weak too but he saw what was happening. He swam between the lifeboat and the approaching ship and barked continuously. The Captain saw him just in time and ordered the engines to be stopped. Then he saw the lifeboat full of people they had almost run down.

The people were taken on board as well as Rigel. While they were taken below to put on warm clothes and to have some hot food, he refused to leave the deck and stood with his paws on the rail still searching the black cold sea for his master. It was a long time before the crew were able to take him below for some hot food.

Throughout this long horrible night, Rigel never once thought about his own safety and comfort. His first thought was to save his master, and then to save the people in the boat.

Philosophy 33: The King and his daughters

We ended with a very interesting demonstration of Philosophy for Children, where we did a roleplay of kids in a classroom. We started by removing our footwear. Pressing the feet to the ground. Closing our eyes. And concentrating on the sounds around us. This is the Calm Down exercise. The next exercise was a follow up of what had been discussed in the classs in the last week. For example the topic of discussion could have been ‘What is Truth?’ So what have been the implications of untruth at home.

This was followed by a story. A king had three daughters. One day, he called all three of them and asked them: how much do you love me? One of them knew that the king was very fond of gold. In order to impress him she said I love you as much as I love gold. The middle daughter knew that all the coins in his Kingdom were minted in silver. She mentioned to him that I love you as much as I love silver. The youngest surprised the king by telling him that she loves him as much as she loves salt. The king asked the youngest daughter why did she trivialiase her love. He was very angry with her. The youngest daughter left the room and went to the kitchen. She told the cook: ‘Please do not put any salt in the food that is made today.’ The king realised his foolishness during lunch time.

This was followed by a question and answer session. Who do you think loved her father the most? The rules for answering were simple.

• If you have an answer you need to raise your hand.
• If someone else is speaking you will not interrupt.
• You will not put down anyone’s ideas.

We had an interesting range of answers. My own one was that the question itself was wrong!

We then moved on to the next question. ‘Do parents behave the same with all their children? This lead us to probe: what is love? We came up with 6 definitions of love. Makrand had a very good observation: all the definitions are only expressions of love!

Good resource for Moral Science stories:

http://www.english-for-students.com/Short-Moral-Stories-for-Kids.html

Philosophy 1: Two Goats

The starting point is always a calming down exercise. In this exercise students are first made to close their eyes. Since almost 75% of the stimulus a brain receives is visual, the eye closing serves to focus attention on the other sensory organ inputs. The teacher needs to help direct the brain towards the other senses. The student sits upright with both feet planted firmly on the ground (I myself prefer bare feet on the ground.) The first sense to explore is touch. Sense how you can feel the chair that you are sitting on. Sense the cloth of your uniform touching your body. We then move on to sounds. Hear the sounds of your body breathing, hear the sounds in the class – of the wind coming in through the windows, the fans whirring. Hear the sounds outside the class – vehicles moving on the road outside. After about 2 minutes ask students to slowly open their eyes. Then ask them how they feel? During the session you can ask this ‘how do you feel?’ question often. It serves to reinforce positive feelings. You can also ask “What did you think of?’ This is to check on students who are still not in the zone. Divergent thinking needs to be discouraged.

The first part of the session is usually a round-up of a thinking assignment that was given after last week’s session. Some teachers put the ‘Thought for the Week’ on the board or as a poster on the classroom wall to serve as a reminder to students to do this thinking. The starting discussion is important because it tells us whether students have actually been up to the thinking task through the week. They offer evidence of what worked – and what did not. The discussions reinforce the last lesson.

Students have to make a story by first arranging the cards in the right sequence. And then writing down the story. Ask groups to narrate the story.

At the end of the activity, the participants got back to the round table format that is usual for P4C sessions. Paddy then started his questioning. ‘Why did we do this activity?’ ‘What was your role in the group?’ ‘Did everyone contribute?’ ‘What did the group do wrong?’ ‘What should be the thought for the week?’

Students themselves come up with the ‘Thought for the week’ – and then the cycle starts again.

All the Philosophy sessions will follow this template. So for remaining sessions only activities / stories are highlighted.

Philosophy 2: Sheep and Shepherd

This was a role play – where some of us had to become shepherds and the rest sheep. The run time of the activity was 45 minutes. Instructions were written down on a card and presented to groups. The first thing that Paddy did was to ask ‘Who wants to volunteer to be the leader (Shepherd)?’ In our class, Archana and Anita volunteered. The two shepherds were then asked to choose their own flock in a way that the sheep were distributed equally between groups. Each group then separated out and were told to follow the instructions of the card and come up with a plan to execute the task given on the card.

The card instructions were that the group had to use very simple sounds like – whistles, claps, and beating of sticks in order to get the sheep into an area which was designated the pen. The sheep could be placed anywhere in the play area. The shepherd had to stand at a designated area and guide the blindfolded sheep. Each group had to come up with their own rules that when used would help the blindfolded sheep move into the pen. Surprisingly, both the groups that were formed came up with very similar rules. In order to ensure that as a teacher you have as much fun with this exercise as we did, I will not take you through the rules we used. But as a moderator a tip is that you can use objects to delineate obstructions and the pen in the ground.

At the end of the activity the participants got back to the round table format that is usual for P4C sessions. Paddy then started his questioning. ‘Why did we do this activity?’ ‘Why did you choose to be a leader / follower?’ ‘When the pre-activity group rule discussions started, did everyone contribute?’ ‘Did the group have a post-event discussion?’ (This was a close ended question because neither of the groups had had this discussion. He made us feel guilty as hell for being poor learners of learning.) ‘What did the other group do wrong?’ ‘What is responsibility?’ ‘What should be the thought for the week?’

Paddy gave us tips on how to make the game more interesting. Having two groups working in parallel on the ground. Ensuring that other groups sheep have to be avoided. Converting one of the sheep into a fox. And he also advised that if there are multiple ideas for the ‘Thought of the week’, then the facilitator needs to zero in on one idea that they think is the most relevant to the activity.

A few word on rules related to discussions. In the case of our session, Paddy had got along placards with rules written on them. He showed them to us before we started the session. In case any one was not following rules, he only had to raise that placard for us to get the point. This saved time for both students and teacher – and at the same time did not seem to hurt the ego of the offending party. One interesting idea that Paddy introduced was to have a separate session (preferably the starting one) where the class discusses the importance of rules – and ends up agreeing on what rules are important for the class.

Here is a rough plan for the Rules class. Introduce the concept of rules and develop briefly. Here are questions that will help. Where do we find rules? Why do we have rules? Are rules always useful? Why? Should we always stick to rules? What would life be like without rules? Break children into small working groups depending on their ability to co-operate. Small friendship groups are ideal to start off with. Explain to the class that there is going to be thinking about how we should work and talk together. By the end of the session, the class would have made up a set of rules, especially for them.

To start off, they are going to look at some possible rules and with their partner group decides which of them would be helpful or not helpful for the class. Here are a few sample rules:

Talk about what you are going to do after school

Make silly noises

Interrupt when the teacher is speaking

Shout out when you would like to say something

One person talks at a time

Put your hand up if you would like to say something

Look at the person who is talking

Cooperate with each other

Everyone takes a turn

Listen to the person who is talking

Sit facing each other

Stop at the teacher’s signal

Stay on the task.

Once the group has discussed each rule, they should place it on the chart according to its importance. Before they are given the materials, the group should decide on a strategy for carrying out the task. How will they manage the cards, How will decide where the card goes, Who will go first etc.

Distribute the materials and allow groups to carry out the task. Circulate and ask Groups for reasons for placement of cards. If group complete task, they can use blank cards to make up some cards of their own and place them on the chart. Alternatively a floor set of rules may be done with the whole class.

Once cards have been placed, each group should take the best rules and put them in order of importance. Again they should have reasons for this. Groups report back and as a class decide on the best rules. Teacher can add any rule she thinks are important. After all, she is also part of the class.

Review lesson how well did children work? What was learned. Discuss a possible thought for the week. (Hopefully to do with rules and their effect). Display the thought with the rules the class has decided on. Class could illustrate them. Children should sign an agreement and display it along with the rules, illustrations and thought for the week.

He also told us of an interesting exercise that they had done using this template in the rural school. Coming from the low income, socially backward background, most students of the school used language which was plentiful in abuses. So one day the class had a discussion on abuses. It started by listing down all abuses on the board. And then there was a discussion on what abuses were acceptable – and what were not. They realized to their consternation, that most were not. Yet, they were also troubled, that in the absence of the function of steam-letting out which is served by abuses, there would be physical violence. So they then came up with a new list of acceptable abuses. Most of the happened to be animal names! They also came out with a consensus punishment for the use of abuses. The implementation is quite innovative. There is a register outside every class where anyone can record details of the ‘abuse’ incident. Once the incident is verified, the student takes up the punishment – which is typically watering the garden..

We ended the session with an evaluation. Evaluations are important as they reinforce learning. Paddy typically picks up one rule to focus on in a session. He uses his standard trick of raising or lowering hands in order to check with the class as to how much of conformance was there with the rules. Sometimes this evaluation is also done by a specially invited observer. Form for evaluation is at the end of the note. The evaluation can serve as a guide map of future focus areas of a class.

Philosophy 3: The Magic of Happiness

• • 1. Remind children that they can look outwards and inwards. That is, through using the senses (outwards) and by knowing or ‘watching’ our thoughts (inwards). Both of these can happen whilst doing the exercise. Practise the exercise together.
    2. Remind pupils that each week they will be asked to think about the last philosophy session, and bring forward any new evidence, thoughts or ideas connected with it. They should know that philosophy and thinking do not just take place during the 1 hour lesson per week – good thinking can take place at anytime.
    3. Make sure the class have agreed on the rules for good dialogue e.g. one person speaks at a time. See the list in the first section of the book.
    4. Read the story ‘The Magic of Happiness’.
    5. Ask children to remember three things that happened in the story, in the correct order, and then share these with a partner.
    6. Working in groups of 3 or 4, get children to discuss what they thought was the theme or ‘inner meaning’ of the story, giving evidence from the story. For example, ‘We think the theme was friendship because . . . ’
    7. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate the dialogue.
    8. For a closure activity, get children to think of one idea mentioned today that is important to them.
    9. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week.’

The Magic of Happiness

This modern fairy story for younger children, shows that there are subtle aspects to happiness, and that the absence of it affects everyone and everything around. Benson the giant takes a while to learn that happiness is best!

You’ve all heard stories about giants before, haven’t you? Greedy giants, like the one in Jack and the Beanstalk. Stupid giants, cruel and treacherous giants, even kind giants.

This is the story of a sad and miserable giant. His name was Benton and he lived in a big house with a very large garden.

One thing that Benton liked was flowers. He loved to look at the delicate structure of their petals and stamens and marvel at their brilliant colours. He would bend and put his enormous nose near them and smell their scent. Sometimes he would just sit and watch the bees gathering nectar or the butterflies hovering about. The only trouble was, even in his vast garden, not a single flower would grow. He could only admire flowers in other people’s gardens.

All the people of the village were used to Benton, of course. Some of them felt sorry for him but others thought him mean and unfriendly. He was always straying into their gardens to admire the flowers but if anyone came near his house, he would send them away with a roar and a wave of a huge fist.

Benton tried planting seeds. He watered them well and they came up, but as soon as he bent over to peer at them, they wilted, and Benton’s face would droop too. He tried buying plants from the garden centre but as soon as he planted them in his own garden, they wilted and died. Once he even paid a gardener to plant out his garden, but it was no use. The minute that Benton came out to look at the flowers, the colourful blooms bent their heads and the leaves curled up and withered. Even weeds and grass wouldn’t grow, so that the giant’s garden looked like a desert of dry earth and stones.

The only living thing in Benton’s garden was a huge oak tree. It was hundreds of years old and far more powerful than the giant. In fact, when the giant sat under its gnarled branches sometimes on hot summer days, even he looked small by comparison.

Children sometimes looked into his garden as it seemed like a good place to kick a ball around and the oak tree looked inviting to climb. But Benton the giant would roar and shake his massive fist and they would run back home, holding their hands over their ears.

One day he was sick. When he awoke in the morning he felt hot and shivery. He tried to get out of bed but almost fell over as dizziness overcame him.

‘Oooh, I feel bad,’ he moaned, and lay down in bed again.

For three days he stayed there, just managing sometimes to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom. No-one knew he was ill. No-one came to visit him or make him something nice to eat. On the fourth day he felt a little better and sat up on the side of the bed. Something caught his eye outside the window and he stood up for a better look. There were children playing in a corner of his garden!

Benton leapt to his feet, raising his fist and preparing to bang on the window and bellow to frighten them away.

But his legs felt weak and would hardly hold him and his arm felt heavy and flopped back to his side. Even the bellow in his throat came out as a whisper.

Benton slumped back on the bed, annoyed. He would get them! When he was better he would teach them a lesson.

It took several more days for the giant to recover completely and all the time he could hear the laughter and shouts of the children having fun in his garden. At last he felt better and early one morning he went downstairs. He opened the front door quietly and peered out.

‘Good,’ he said to himself. ‘The children haven’t arrived yet, but when they do, they are in for a big fright.’

Benton crept outside and hid behind the big oak tree. Then he waited. Soon the children arrived, skipping and laughing. The giant watched as they entered his gate and went over to the corner where they had been playing. Then he took a deep breath.

‘Go Away’! he roared.

The children screamed and fled with Benton striding after them, making sure they were well away from his gate. Then he turned back towards his house.

But something caught his eye. In the corner where the children had been playing a thick carpet of grass covered the ground. Through it daisies and buttercups poked their heads. Around the edges were clumps of wild flowers.

Benton couldn’t believe his eyes! He strode over for a closer look but as he reached them the colours faded, the flower petals fell and the grass turned brown. Before his eyes the garden disappeared leaving brown dusty earth.

What had made the garden grow? What magic did the children possess?

He remembered the sound of their happy playing. Was that what it was?

Benton ran back towards the gate and along the road. ‘Come back!’ he shouted. ‘Children! Come back!’

The children stopped running and turned round, unable to believe their ears. There stood Benton waving his hand to bring them back instead of his fist to shoo them away.

Slowly they went back. What had made the giant change? They were suspicious at first. ‘Why are you calling us back?’ asked one brave boy.

‘Because you have the magic of happiness,’ said the giant. ‘You made my garden bloom. Come in and see.’

The children trooped in and soon forgot the giant and started to play again. Benton watched from his doorway.

Little by little spikes of green grass sprouted and thickened into a lawn. Flowers opened their petals in a rainbow of colours. Soon bees and dragonflies arrived, and birds sang from the oak tree.

Benton was the happiest giant in the world.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Benton didn’t like children, and he was always feeling miserable, but what was the one thing that he did like?

Do you think this shows us anything about Benton?

Why did Benton call the children back after he had been shouting at them?

Have you ever been unhappy and seen the effect it has on others?

What effect does being happy have on other people?

How could this affect our class? Our school? Our family?

What causes happiness?

Are there different kinds of happiness?

Does happiness last? Why? Why not?

Can we choose to be happy?

Thought for the Week

Look to see what makes you happy. Can we make others happy? Where is happiness?

Philosophy 4: Saying Nice Things

1. Remind the children again that when ‘in the present (moment)’ they are aware of both what is known through the senses and the fact that they are knowing or experiencing it. (For example, this is looking at something and at that moment knowing that you are seeing. It is making that conscious connection with what is under observation.) Practise the exercise, trying to ‘be in the present’.
2. Remember the story about ‘The Magic of Happiness’ and see what further ideas children can bring to last week’s dialogue. Remember the ‘Thought for the Week’ and ask for further ideas and thoughts about this.
3. Do the activity ‘Saying Nice Things’.
4. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to support dialogue investigating the children’s feelings in doing the activity.
5. Sum up the important ideas talked about in the dialogue. These may be displayed with the sentences.
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

‘Saying nice things’ – activity

1 Explain that today they are going to be working on saying nice things about each other. Ask them to have a look around the class and think about the kinds of nice things they could say about each other. Encourage them to look beyond the physical – for example not ‘Jenny is wearing a nice jumper’, but rather ‘Jenny is very generous to others’. They should think about the particular qualities each person has. Take some examples.

1. Activity
   • Put children into working groups of 4-5 – if possible sitting round a table facing each other. You may want to keep together those who will need your support.
   • Everyone should be given a blank piece of A4 paper and coloured pens should be made available.
   • Everyone puts his/her name at the top and passes that paper to the next person in the group.
   • Each child writes a sentence at the bottom of the page saying something nice about the person whose name is at the top. Each sentence should start with the child’s name and children should be encouraged to give evidence where possible for example, Jenny is kind and considerate because she shared her crisps with me when I forgot mine.
   • Reassure children that on this occasion you are not particularly worried about spelling and they should use the words they want even if they are not spelled correctly.
   • Some children may need to be reminded that only nice things can be written. Others may need help scribing. This can either be done by the teacher or by another pupil in the group.
   • Each paper is then folded up so that the sentence cannot be seen and passed on to the next person. The next person writes his/her sentence above the first fold and then folds it up and passes it on once more.
   • This is repeated until every member of the group has written a nice sentence about each member of the group. You may like to let each person also write a sentence about him/herself.
   • The papers can then be opened up and read by the person who wrote the first sentence.
   • Papers can later be displayed, word processed or simply given to the child to keep.
2. Ask the children first to think about what they noticed about the activity – what they thought, how they felt – and then share this with a partner.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Encourage the children to provide evidence of what they say where possible i.e. can they give an example from their own experience?

What is the effect of people saying nice things about you? How does it make you feel?

What is the effect of saying something nice to another person? How does it make them feel or act?

Is it possible to say something nice to someone even if you don’t feel like saying it?

Is it always easy to say nice things about someone else? Why not?

How do you feel if someone says something unkind to you or about you?

Should you say something nice even when it is not true? Why? Why not?

Do you think everybody has some nice qualities? Evidence?

What does it mean when people say ‘You should be positive’? How was the activity you just did positive?

What are the effects from being positive? What are the effects of being negative?

How could that activity help our class?

Thought for the Week

Be aware of what you say about other people, and how you say it. Do you say nice, positive things about them, or do you just criticise? What are the effects?

Philosophy 5: The Donkey’s Shadow

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention. Praise those who are obviously connected in the present moment and not day-dreaming.
2. Remind children of last week’s activity, recall the dialogue and take any further comments or evidence from children.
3. Read the story ‘The Donkey’s Shadow’.
4. Ask pupils to remember three things that happened in the story but in reverse chronological order. After giving time for them to do this, let them share these with a partner.
5. Ask children what they thought was the theme of the story. Take answers and build up an ideas web on the board. Do not give them to the children, but examples could be ‘greed’, ‘selfishness’, ‘ownership’.
6. Move to using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate dialogue.
7. For a closure activity, look again at the web on the board and see which idea or ideas have been developed through the dialogue, and how they have developed.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Donkey’s Shadow

A traveller had a long distance to go so he hired a donkey to carry him and his bags.

They set off, the traveller riding the donkey and the donkey’s owner walking alongside.

Along the dusty track they went, through the cool forest and up towards the distant hills. After a time they emerged from the cover of the forest to the bare hills where there was no shade.

It was a fine day and as time went by it grew hotter and hotter. The traveller wore a hat but still the sweat trickled down his neck and he longed for a drink. He became so hot and thirsty that soon he couldn’t stop thinking about having a drink. Oh! For some lovely cool water!

‘I must rest and have some water,’ he said to the donkey owner, who was well used to walking in hot weather.

He dismounted and sat down in the donkey’s shadow, which was the only shade there was. The owner of the donkey was at ease, and sat waiting for the traveller to feel better.

Soon the donkey’s owner also began to feel too hot in the sun. He saw that the only shadow there was, was the donkey’s shadow – and there was only room for one person to rest in that shadow!

‘Move over,’ he said. ‘I own the donkey and therefore his shadow too. I want to use the shadow.’

‘But when I hired the donkey I also hired his shadow,’ said the traveller. ‘No, you did not.’ The owner gave him a little push.

‘Oh yes I did! A donkey and his shadow cannot be separated, and since I’ve paid for the donkey, I’ve paid for his shadow.’

Soon the two men were pushing and shoving each other and then thumping and punching.

While all this was going on they didn’t notice the donkey wandering away, so that when the men eventually fell exhausted to the ground there was no shadow . . . and no donkey either.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why did the men begin to quarrel?

Who do you agree with – the traveller or the donkey owner? Why?

Why did the traveller think he owned the shadow?

What is a shadow?

Is it possible to own a shadow? Why? Why not?

What was the problem?

Was there any other solution?

How would you have acted in that situation? Why?

Why do people share? Reasons? Evidence?

Why do people not share? Evidence?

Thought for the Week

During the week, see whether you share, or whether you are greedy. How do you feel at the time? What makes you share or not share?

Philosophy 6: What’s my Line number?

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention.
2. Recall the story from last week and see if children have evidence of further thinking on the theme, especially in connection with the ‘Thought for the Week’.
3. Play ‘What’s My Line?’ then try ‘What’s My Number?’
4. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’, to consider ways of thinking that may be used in order to play the games.
5. Close by praising individuals or groups who have shown good thinking, been focussed on their work, and so on.

‘WHAT’S MY LINE?’ – ACTIVITY

This game is based on an American television show of years ago, where a celebrity guest, sometimes with an unusual occupation ‘signed in’. The panel had a limited number of questions to discover what the guest’s ‘line’ was – that is, what they did for a living.

• To play the game in the classroom, a child is the ‘guest’ and thinks of an occupation. For example, postman, policewoman, helicopter pilot, and so on.
• One person is scorer and keeps a tally on the board.
• The class now have to ask questions of the guest – who can only answer either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – nothing more.
• The scorer keeps a tally of the responses.

YES III NO II etc.

• For the class to win the game, they must correctly guess the occupation before 10 ‘no’s’ are reached. The ‘guest’ wins if the 10 ‘no’s’ are reached.
• If a child guesses correctly, that child becomes the ‘guest’ for the next game.

The class soon learn (or sometimes the teacher needs to get them thinking about the fact) that to directly go to specific occupations soon exhausts the ten ‘no’s’. They have to think of strategies that will enable them to narrow down the possibilities. Such questions might include ‘Do you wear a uniform?’, ‘Do you work outdoors?’, ‘Do you deal with the pub- lic in your job?’. Obviously, if the answer to ‘Do you wear a uniform?’, is ‘Yes’, then that eliminates all jobs where the person does not have a uniform.

It is important, after playing the game a couple of times, perhaps without too much success on the part of the class, to let them discuss what some strategies might be, before playing again.

WHAT’S MY NUMBER?

This is similar to ‘What’s my Line?’ except that instead of a job, a number is held in mind. The teacher can limit this to what is suitable to the class. For example, numbers less than 100, less than 1000, and so on. Of course, a class can also start with a smaller limit and raise it as they become more skilled.

• In this game, the nature of the questions will be somewhat different – ‘Is the number a multiple of 10?’, ‘Is the number divisible by two?’ and so on. The mathematical con- cepts will have to be suitable to the age limit, and can be phrased in the mathematical language used by the class.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

If you were the person acting as the ‘guest’, was there a temptation to cheat? (Change the answer you had in your head)

If you had, what do you think would have been the effect?

If you didn’t get the answer quite quickly did you feel like giving up, or that it was a silly game? Why? What other feelings did you have?

What strategies (ways of thinking or asking questions) did you use?

How would you know if it was a good way of thinking or not so good?

Did you learn a way of thinking or asking questions from listening to others? Is this cheating? Why or why not?

If you learned a way of asking questions in one game, did it work in the next game? Why or why not?

Thought for the Week

Why do we play games? Is it always important to win? Try to find some an- swers to these questions as you play games during the week.

Philosophy 7: Learning to Swim

1. Remind children that when in the exercise they are connecting with the ‘present moment’ through the sense of sight, that ‘shapes’ are not just geometric shapes, but the shapes of anything and everything that can be observed – people, furniture etc. Practise the exercise, then ask what was observed.
2. Read the story ‘Learning to Swim’.
3. To see who has been listening well, play ‘True, False, Can’t Tell’. In this, the teacher reads a series of statements about the content of the story and pupils have to decide if they are true, or false, or if there is no evidence for their decisions. (If you want to make a bit of fun, let children show their decision in different ways. For example, true by putting hands on heads, false by . . . )
4. Working in pairs, get the children to decide on a theme for the story. Some of these can be put on the board, with lines joining linked ideas. Children should give evidence to support their reasons for linking.
5. Move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
6. To close, ask for volunteers to sum up the ideas that have been discussed. Let several children do this, with each adding one thought.
7. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Learning to Swim

Patience can be used not only for one’s own benefit, but also for that of others, as Jamie finds out in helping his brother. Curiously, he finds there is also something in it for him!

Jamie was a champion swimmer. In fact, his ambition was to swim in the Olympics one day. He competed in all the swimming competitions at his local sports centre. Like a duck in water, his mum always said.

And she, was like a cat in water, she hated it. In fact cats could swim if they had to, whereas she couldn’t. She often said that her brother had ducked her when they were children and she’d hated it ever since.

Today Mum was taking Jamie and his young brother Brad to the swimming pool.

Jamie had a practice session later.

‘Teach me to swim,’ said Brad in the car. He was just five and had recently started school. ‘I want to swim like you, Jamie.’

Jamie laughed. ‘You’re afraid of getting your face wet. You always cry. You have to put your face under water to swim properly.’

‘I will put my face in,’ said Brad, but he looked at their mother apprehensively.

When they got to the pool the two boys went to put on their trunks and their mum went to sit in the spectators’ seats.

Jamie really wanted to dive straight into the big pool and carve swiftly through the water with his strong crawl. There weren’t many people and the empty lanes looked really tempting.

‘Another time, Brad,’ he said.

His brother pouted. ‘Please, Jamie. I want to swim like you.’

What if he did teach Brad? What if Brad became a better swimmer than him? Reluctantly he gave in.

‘Okay.’ Jamie went to the small pool and slid in off the side. Brad hesitated on the edge. He looked up at their mum, then back at the water.

‘Come on,’ said Jamie, impatiently. ‘Do you want me to teach you or not?’ ‘Don’t force him,’ called out Mum. ‘You might scare him.’

Jamie wished he’d said no at the beginning.

Brad ran to the steps and climbed down into the water. It came up to his waist. ‘Right,’ said Jamie. ‘Hold onto the edge and kick your legs. Like this.’

But Brad couldn’t get his feet off the bottom.

Jamie sighed. ‘You can’t swim with your feet on the bottom,’ he said. This was wasting time. He thought of grabbing Brad’s legs and lifting them up. He’d heard of people who threw young children into the pool so that they had to swim. That way they learnt quickly.

‘I’ll hold you round the waist,’ he said. ‘You’ll be all right.’

‘I might sink,’ wailed Brad. Jamie saw the fear in his brother’s face and he softened a little.

‘No, you won’t. I won’t let you sink.’

Slowly Brad lifted one foot off the bottom, then the other. Finally his body floated while he held the side of the pool. By the end of the session he could do it without Jamie holding him.

But then he let go with one hand to wave to Mum and his face went under and got a mouthful of water and came up crying. Mum came running down and lifted him out.

This is hopeless, thought Jamie. Crying just because he got a mouthful of water. ‘Brad,’ said Jamie.

‘Don’t be such a baby. I sometimes get a mouthful of water too.’

‘He got a fright,’ said Mum, soothingly, stroking Brad’s wet hair. ‘I got a fright,’ echoed Brad.

‘I’m going to practise,’ muttered Jamie. He was fed up with both of them. He didn’t care if Brad never learnt to swim. What did it matter?

Nevertheless, the next week he began to teach him again. During the week he had remembered being afraid himself. It had been when he had dived to the bottom to get his locker key, which had slipped off his wrist. It had been quite shallow but had seemed a long way down and he had almost panicked. The water had gurgled loudly and had stung his eyes and he had wanted to breathe. His lungs had been bursting. Then there was the time he’d suddenly found himself out of his depth . . .

‘Now you have to learn what to do with your arms,’ he said to Brad.

Brad started churning his arms round like windmills, slapping the water with open palms.

No, no,’ said Jamie. ‘Your hands have to be paddles and push the water away. Like this’ He cupped one hand and pushed it through the water. Brad tried again.

‘That’s better. Now, I’ll hold you and you try to swim.’

Later they practised putting their heads under water. Jamie showed Brad how to hold his nose until he got used to it and the little boy managed to dunk his head under quickly and come up smiling.

‘Very good,’ said Jamie.

Soon Brad could swim on his own for a few strokes and the day he did a whole width Jamie felt really proud. Brad’s style wasn’t great but Jamie could work on that.

All his patience had been worth it. Maybe he’d even persuade Mum to come and have a lesson.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why didn’t Jamie want to teach Brad to swim?

Why do you think he changed his mind?

Using evidence from the story, would you say Jamie was patient or not patient?

Was he patient right through the story?

How did Jamie feel, having taught Brad to swim? How did this compare with his feelings at the beginning of the story?

What are some things that would make you patient when dealing with a younger brother or sister? What are some things that would make you impatient?

What are the reasons why we get impatient with people?

Do you like people to be patient or impatient with you?

What would the school be like if everyone was impatient? Patient?

Does being ‘awake’ and in the present (such as when we practise the exercise) affect whether we are patient or not?

What is patience?

Thought for the Week

When you find yourself feeling impatient with someone, try to look for the reasons you are feeling like that. Compare that with how you feel when you are being patient.

Philosophy 8: Musical Activity

Before the activity session you will need to arrange three pieces of music to listen to. Examples of what would be suitable for this exercise are either two pieces of Mozart (piano concertos, or any instrumental concerto or sonata) and a contrasting piece such as ‘Mars’ from Holst’s ‘The Planet Suite’. A piece of Vivaldi could be used instead of the initial short Mozart piece. The second movement of a Mozart concerto is ideal, and these are usually about 8-10 minutes long. (Note: If teachers wish to learn more about the effects of music, ‘The Mozart Effect’ by Don Campbell is a good resource. The University of Southern California has also done a lot of research, much of which is available via the Internet.)

1. Do the calming exercise. Take observations from children about what they saw, felt and heard, and praise those whose comments show they were ‘in the present’ – not day-dreaming.
2. Remind the children of the story ‘Learning to Swim’ and see if anyone has had more thoughts or observations about patience.
3. Introduce the session by asking pupils simply to listen to a short piece of music. Play about 3 minutes from a piece of Mozart or Vivaldi.
4. Ask what the children observed about the listening process. Where was their attention? Were there ideas in mind? What were they? Was it difficult to focus on the music, hear it, and do nothing else?
5. After the initial discussion, make a judgement on how long the children will be able to listen. This may be anything from 5 to 15 minutes – but do not under-estimate their ability! Listen to the principal Mozart piece.
6. In pairs, ask the pupils to discuss what feelings they noticed as they listened. Were there ideas in their minds? How did their bodies feel? Give time for discussion, then ask for examples. (Note: In the discussion, draw out what was observed and also where their attention was – was it focussed or were they day-dreaming?)
7. Listen to the second piece, Holst or similar (a loud and energetic piece). Again get pupils to discuss their feelings. After a suitable time hear examples from individuals. Encourage pupils to question others for clarification of what is said.

Class Dialogue

Were the feelings any different in listening to the two pieces? If so, why might this be?

Do children recall any different feelings / effects in listening to other music? (For example, Pop music, marching music, hymns, jazz, country and so on.) What are they?

If the effects are different for different kinds of music, is this important? Is it useful? How?

Why do we listen to music?

What is music?

As the dialogue is coming to an end, ask the children to voice what for them is the most important thing they have learned about themselves today.

Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

As you listen to various kinds of music during the week, see if you notice how it affects you. How do you feel?

Philosophy 9: Albert Einstein

1. Practise the exercise in focusing and calming.
2. Remember the activity that was done last week, and get someone to re-tell what was done, and the outcomes. Take any further observations and discuss.
3. Read the story ‘Albert Einstein’.
4. Continuing to reinforce the work on content and theme, ask children to think of two questions relating to the content of the story. Today let these be addressed to the class, so that half a dozen pupils have the opportunity to ask questions.
5. Moving to the theme, give pupils time to consider what, for them, is the main theme. After sharing the theme and reasoning with a partner, each pair should join with another pair to make a small group. Each person should then give their theme and reasons for their choice. The group should discuss these, then choose a group theme from those discussed.
6. On the board a list of the group themes should be built up, drawing links as in past weeks.
7. Move to the dialogue through using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the process.
8. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’, and what they should do.

Albert Einstein

Physicist (1879-1955)

Albert opened his eyes. There was a feeling of excitement inside him but he couldn’t remember why. Was it a holiday from school?

Then he remembered. It was his birthday. Today he was five! Albert jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to where Mama and Papa were having breakfast.

‘Happy birthday, Albert!’ they said, hugging the little boy.

His mother gave him a flat parcel. Albert opened it. Inside was some violin sheet music. ‘A new piece for you to learn to play,’ she said.

‘And I have something for you too,’ said his father, handing him a small parcel.

This seemed more exciting. Albert fiddled to open the string and paper.

‘Hurry up’, said his mother. ‘It’s time you went to school. Come on – I have much to do.’

At last Albert took out the small object and looked at it. It was a bit like a small ‘It’s a clock.

‘No. It’s a compass,’ said his father. ‘It is this small object that guides sailors at sea. You see the needle with red point?’

Albert looked. Inside the round case under the glass a small metal arm seemed to float about. One end of it was painted red and pointed towards the window.

‘Look’, said his father. ‘Here are the different directions. North, south, east and west. Now, hold the compass flat in your hand so that the needle floats, then turn the compass around.’

Albert did so. To his surprise whichever way he turned the compass, the red needle always pointed towards the window.

‘The earth is like a giant magnet’, said his father. ‘The needle will always point north. Even if you are in the middle of the ocean, you can find your way with a compass. In clear weather the sun and the stars can guide you, but when it’s cloudy, you need your compass.’

Albert stared at the object in his hand with wonder. There were so many exciting things to learn about the earth and the universe – and he was going to find out about them. This was the best birthday present ever!

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

‘Albert stared at the object in his hand with wonder’. What is wonder?

Have you ever had something happen that caused the same feeling? Can anyone give an example?

It seemed that Albert had a curiosity to find out about things. He later went on to become a famous scientist. What is curiosity?

Why are we curious or have curiosity? What is the result?

Do you think curiosity is linked to philosophy? If so, how?

Is curiosity linked to learning? If so, how?

Is curiosity the same as nosiness? How are they the same? How are they different?

Is it good to be curious about things? What is the result?

Is it good to be nosey about things? What is the result?

Thought for the Week

Are you nosey? Are you curious? Look at your actions to discover the answer. If you are curious, is it helping you to learn? How do you know?

Philosophy 10: Changing the Rules

1. Practice the exercise. Ask children what they noticed going on in their mind. For example, did they drift off into daydreams for long periods or were they able to stay quite focussed. (It takes close observation to recognise this.) Praise those who had good attention.
2. Recall the story ‘Albert Einstein’ and ask if children had realised anything during the week about wonder. What evidence have they got?
3. Move to the instructions for ‘Changing the Rules’.
4. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

‘CHANGING THE RULES’ – ACTIVITY

The object of this session is to get children to begin to analyse why there are rules in games, and their effect. They will then use critical and creative thinking skills to change some rules and predict the effect. Children do not have to know all the rules, or even choose a major sport – knowledge of a simple playground game will be just as effective.

1. The children will work in groups of 4 or 5. Once in their groups, they should individually think of a game (football, tennis, chess etc.) that they know well, and think of the rules of the game. It is useful if there are two or three games represented by the group, rather than all thinking of football!
2. After thinking of the rules, and their purpose (both as separate rules and collectively), children should discuss each game, putting forward their own evidence of the rules and purposes, in turn. For example, the first child would speak briefly about their chosen game, the rules that are known, and their purpose. Each child then does it likewise. (If this looks too difficult initially, go through the process as a class first).
3. Working as individuals again, the pupils next consider how some rules might be changed, and what effect that might have on the game. They should be encouraged to think of the knock-on effect that changing one rule might have on other rules. They may introduce a new rule for a perceived effect.
4. After suitable thinking time, children should again report back. Others in the group may challenge any statements, provided they give their own supporting statement or evidence. For example, ‘I don’t agree with Kirsty about changing the throw-in be- cause…’ Children should know that they may later be asked to speak about the ideas of one of their group members – not their own!
5. Moving to class dialogue, the feedback session should hear from someone in each group. Children should tell about the work of someone else in their group. This is a good technique to encourage listening and focused attention.

Thought for the Week

Continue to try to find out more about why we have rules in games. Watch for evidence as you are playing games.

Philosophy 11: Helen Keller

1. Do the calming exercise by asking the children to focus particularly on listening. Afterwards, take examples of what was heard. Praise those examples that show that the child was focused on the sense impressions and not on any interpretation – that is, thinking about them.
2. See if the children have further evidence about rules and their purpose, from observations over the week.
3. Read ‘Helen Keller’ and ask two or three factual questions to make sure the content was understood.
4. Give the children time to think of three events contained in the story, and the ideas that link them. In pairs, share this information.
5. Using one of the ideas (either of their own or their partner’s) they should decide upon a theme for the story, or if they can, frame a philosophical question. This should be written on a slip of paper, which should be then put away until after the dialogue.
6. Begin the dialogue by using the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
7. For a closure activity, ask children to reveal their question/theme and draw any connections (if possible) between what is written and any elements that have emerged in the dialogue. Take examples.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Helen Keller

A woman who overcame deafness and blindness (1880-1968)

Helen Keller was born in Alabama, USA in 1880. Her father had been a soldier in the Civil War and owned a cotton plantation.

When baby Helen was born her sight and hearing were perfectly normal but when she was eighteen months old, she became very ill and although she got better, the illness made her blind and soon after, deaf too.

Imagine what it must be like to live in a dark and silent world.

Helen was a very difficult child. She would reach up and touch people’s lips and then move her own but nothing happened. She knew that other people could do things she couldn’t, and she didn’t understand. The frustration made her very angry and she would scream and smash things up. Her parents could not control her at all.

At that time Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was teaching deaf children and he suggested they try to find a teacher for Helen.

In 1887 a woman called Anne Sullivan was sent to teach Helen. Anne herself had been almost blind so she knew what it was like. Then she had had operations on her eyes and had regained some of her sight.

The Kellers were at their wits’ end with Helen. She had no table manners and would run around grabbing food off people’s plates.

Anne began by writing words with her finger on the palm of Helen’s hand. At first Helen did not understand what Anne was doing. She learnt a few of the tickly squiggles but it meant nothing.

One day Anne took her outside to the water pump and thrust her hand under the cold water. Then she wrote ‘water’ in the child’s other hand. Suddenly Helen realised that a squiggle on her hand meant the water. In excitement, she touched the pump and received the word for that. Then she touched everything on the way back to the house and Anne wrote the words.

Now she was so excited. At last she could communicate with people.

Helen was still not easy to teach. She had been so used to having her own way and sometimes refused to learn to do anything like get dressed herself. As punishment, Anne would refuse to ‘talk’ to Helen on her hand.

But Helen learned very quickly and Anne taught her to read Braille, a special sort of writing made up of raised dots. Soon she learnt to ‘listen’ to people by putting her hand on their mouth or throat.

What Helen wanted most of all was to be able to speak herself but she had never had chance to learn when she could hear so had no way of knowing what words sounded like. She was only ever able to make sounds which only Anne and a few family members could understand.

In 1904 Helen became the first deafblind person to earn a degree, thanks to Anne’s help.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Close your eyes and block your ears for 30 seconds. How did you feel? Even closing your eyes and blocking your ears you could probably see and hear a little. Can you understand a little of how Helen Keller felt? Can you describe this?

Think about how you learn about things – rocks, water, plates, tomatoes – anything and everything. Describe how you think you learn. What would have made it so much harder for Helen?

What does the story show about Helen’s attitude?

What does having a ‘positive attitude’ mean?

Do you ever get frustrated at not being able to do something? What? Why?

What can be learned from the story?

Thought for the Week

Look to see whether you get annoyed by not being able to do things sometimes. What sort of attitude do you have? What is the result?

Philosophy 12: Who’s Talking

1. Do the calming exercise.
2. Ask children if they have had further thoughts about their attitude? What have they discovered during the week?
3. Tell the children they are going to use a story that happened in a school for a stimulus this week. They will be trying to identify any philosophical issues in the story and frame some philosophical questions. Read ‘Who’s Talking?’.
4. Ask children some questions to determine that they have understood the story.
5. Remind children of the nature of philosophical questions. (If necessary give them a strategy such as first identifying a theme, then formulating a question. For example if the theme of the story was ‘fear’, one question would be ‘What is fear?’) Give time for them to consider the article and think about different themes. They should have reasons for their choice.
6. Share questions and reasons in pairs.
7. Build a web of themes on the board and show any link or tensions between the ideas given. Children should give their reasons as they give their questions.
8. Review the range of themes given, then give pupils time to consider all the ideas and choose the one they would like to investigate further through enquiry. Take a vote to determine the question to begin the dialogue.
9. Ask the person who originally put forward the idea to start the dialogue by re-stating the question and putting forward their own view.
10. In building the enquiry, remember to use a variety of types of question such as suggested in the ‘Questions for Thinking’ section at the beginning of this book. If the enquiry ‘runs out of steam’, go to the question with the second number of votes, and so on.

Who’s Talking

‘You’re a thief’, shouted Kathy. ‘I know you stole my pencil case. It was in your drawer.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Iain. ‘Someone must have put it there. I didn’t take it. Why would I want your stupid pencil case anyway? It’s a girl’s one.’

Kathy snorted with anger. ‘It’s not a girl’s one just because it’s got cats on it. But you wouldn’t like cats. You’re horrible!’

‘Pink cats?’ laughed Iain. ‘Would I like a pencil case with pink cats on it?’ Kathy’s face went red and she swung her school bag, hitting Iain on the hand. He yelled and grasped his fingers with his other hand.

Quite a crowd had gathered in the playground and one of the teachers came over to see what was happening.

‘I think you two had better go and see Mr Darville,’ she said.

Mr Darville was the Headteacher. Iain and Kathy were led in by the teacher and told to wait outside his door whilst she told him why they were there. When the teacher came out, Mr Darville beckoned Kathy to go in.

Kathy went in. She would tell Mr Darville about Iain alright. He was a trouble-maker.

He was always trying to cause arguments or annoy people. ‘What happened Kathy?’ asked the Head.

‘Iain stole my pencil-case,’ she said. ‘He’s a thief and he’s always causing trouble. I hate him!’

‘How do you know he stole it?’ asked Mr Darville. ‘I found it in his drawer,’ she said.

‘But is that proof that he took it?’, asked the Head.

‘Well he would. He’s always doing things to annoy people. Nobody likes him. He’s stolen things before’.

‘Oh, how do you know?’ ‘Everyone says so,’ said Kathy.

Kathy left the office, pulling a face at Iain as she passed him.

Mr Darville called Iain into the office. ‘Did you steal Kathy’s pencil case, Iain?’ ‘No. Kathy hit me with her bag and was getting mad at me, but I wouldn’t want it – it’s got pink cats on it anyway. Things like that are always happening to me Mr Darville. No one likes me. Ever since I came here people pick on me and blame me for things.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think Iain stole the pencil case? What evidence is there for that?

Can you think of reasons why he might have stolen it? Can you think of reasons why he wouldn’t?

Did Kathy have good evidence? Did she jump to conclusions? If so, why?

What makes us jump to conclusions? Any examples?

Sometimes, if we don’t know things, do we make them up? Why?

If we make things up, are those things lies? Any examples or evidence?

If we exaggerate, is that lying?

What does evidence mean? What is evidence?

Is it important to tell the truth? Why? Why not?

What is the truth?

Thought for the Week

Give children a Thought for the Week based on the questions that have arisen in the dialogue. Let them help formulate it, but keep it brief and with only one or two main points.

Philosophy 13: The Lion and the Mouse

1. Remind children of the reasons for doing the calming exercise. Reinforce the importance of being actively ‘connected’ through the senses – not just sitting being quiet. Talk the class through the exercise.
2. As it is the start of a new block of work, ask children to recall the rules of good dialogue that were agreed upon in Block 1, Session 1.
3. Introduce the story ‘The Lion and the Mouse’, and read it.
4. Ask the class to think of three themes that they think are important that happened in the story. Give time for them to do this.
5. In pairs or threes, pupils should share ideas and give reasons for their choices. Once this has been done, it can be done as a class, with the themes being written up on the board.
6. Draw any links (both metaphorically and on the board), between ideas, and also show ideas opposed to each other – perhaps in a different colour. Give an example if necessary.
7. Use the ‘Questions For Thinking’ to start the dialogue.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Lion and the Mouse

This fable shows that one does not have to be strong and powerful to be good. Each indi- vidual has talents that can be used for the good of others. These acts of goodness need not be huge events, but just everyday situations that arise in each individual’s life. The events will keep coming but we can choose how we deal with them!

A lion was out one day searching for food. He hadn’t had much luck and was getting hungry. His tummy was rumbling very loudly.

Suddenly he spotted a mouse dashing through the grass. The lion swiped with his great paw and grabbed the mouse in his claws. It was only a small mouse but would be better than nothing.

‘Oh please, Sir,’ said the mouse. ‘Don’t eat me. Great and honourable lion, King of all beasts. Please let me go. I have six children at home who will have no father if you kill me.’

The lion was flattered by all this reverence. For a moment he wavered. Then he felt the hunger pangs again and opened his mouth wide.

‘I beg you,’ said the mouse. ‘If you spare my life I will save yours one day.’

Instead of eating the mouse, the lion threw back his head and laughed. ‘You, save me? That’s impossible.’ But he was so amused at the mouse that he did let him go and the mouse scampered back to his family.

Some weeks later some huntsmen came into the jungle. They trapped the lion in a net and pulled tight so that he couldn’t move and then left him beside a tree. At the end of the day they intended to come back for him. Then who knows what would happen.

Along came the little mouse, skipping and scampering. It stopped short when it saw the trapped lion. Then it ran up and began gnawing through the net. It was a big job for a little mouse but all day long it chewed and chewed and never once stopped for a rest. At last the mouse chewed through the last bit of net and the lion was free. It was almost sunset and the huntsman were due back any minute.

The lion bent his big head down to the mouse. ‘Thank you little mouse,’ he said. ‘You kept your word and saved my life, even though I thought it was impossible.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did the lion show goodness?

How did the mouse show goodness?

What made the lion think it would be impossible for the mouse to save his life?

Think of some things that you are good at – your talents – how can they be used to do good? Do you use them in this way? Why? Why not?

Should we be good/do good? What are your reasons and evidence?

Do we sometimes do good in order to help ourselves?

Are there times when we should not be good/do good? When? Why?

What is ‘good’?

Philosophy 14: Poster Activity

Before the lesson, have a piece of A2 paper for each group of three (or 4) pupils. Some coloured pens should also be available. Background: A philosopher tries to see the unity in diversity – the common elements that bind together apparently disparate things. Today the children will be considering what it is that makes human beings the same, amidst the apparent differences.

1. Practise the exercise.
2. Recall last week’s story and discuss whether the children had found any evidence of ‘Goodness’. Have any of their actions fallen into this category? Why did they do them? How did they feel?
3. The first task is to draw a large circle (as large as possible) on the sheet, then a smaller circle inside the first one. This second will be about the size of a side plate. Inside the small circle write the word ‘Same’, and inside the large circle write ‘Different’.

Different

Same

1. The rules for the activity are that everyone must contribute to the process, and everyone must be able to report back – talk about what is on the poster.
2. Get the children to leave their poster and explain to them the rules above. Use the words ‘Unity’ and ‘Diversity’ if appropriate, but certainly explain the concepts of things being the same, and being different. Explain that today they are going to be thinking about what is the same, and what is different about human beings (people). Call for one or two examples in each category.
3. Working in their groups, children now discuss the question, and write what they agree on in the appropriate spaces.
4. After a suitable time (15 minutes), ask everyone to spend two minutes looking at their poster, and ensuring they know what is meant by what is written on it.
5. Have each group report back. Encourage those listening to seek clarification if necessary.
6. To close the session, ask children to consider, what for them, have been important new ideas today.

• Why do we often see the differences first?
• Is it important to see similarities? Why?
• Would understanding the similarities make us treat people differently? How? Why?
• How can we make use of what we have discovered today?

1. Discuss what a suitable ‘Thought for the Week’ could be, from the posters that have been done. They should work around the themes of ‘same’ and ‘different’.
2. Display the posters.

Philosophy 15: The Fox in the Well

1. Remind the class that the exercise reinforces and strengthens the ability to give attention, which is related to the ability to learn. Practise the focusing exercise together.
2. Recall the activity from last week and let someone explain it again. Does anyone have any new observations or thoughts about it? Discuss any examples.
3. Read the story of ‘The Fox in the Well’. Discuss the content and any words that are unclear.
4. Ask the children to think about the story and think of four things that happened in the story, in the correct order. They should share these with a partner.
5. Use the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
6. Make sure the ‘Thought for the Week’ is fully understood.

The Fox in the Well

As the fox was walking along, not looking where he was going, he fell into a well. There was a little water in it so he had a drink and then wondered how he was going to get out. The walls of the well were sheer. He walked around it and examined the sides to see if there were any ledges on which to climb out.

As he looked up, a face peered at him over the edge. It was a goat. He could tell that because it had a long beard and two curly horns.

‘What are you doing down there,’ asked the goat.

‘I’m having a drink,’ said the fox. ‘The water is wonderful. Really tasty. And it’s so cool down here’.

It was a hot day and the goat was very thirsty, so he looked longingly at the water. ‘It is very nice water,’ went on the fox. ‘Cool and . . . and . . . very wet. There’s plenty to share – enough for both of us’.

‘Then I’ll come down,’ said the goat, unable to resist. And without another word he jumped into the well.

After he had drunk some water the goat was feeling much refreshed. He looked up the sheer sides of the well. ‘How can we get out?’ he asked.

‘Easy,’ said the fox. ‘You stand with your hooves against the side and I will climb up your back. When I’m out I will help you.’

‘Are you sure that will work’, said the goat. ‘It’s difficult for me to get a grip with my hooves’.

‘Of course it will work. Trust me’, said the fox.

So the goat stood on his hind legs and tucked his head in and the fox climbed up his back and then could just manage to get out of the well.

‘Help me out now’, called the goat, his voice echoing. The fox looked back down the well and grinned.

‘Don’t you know that you should never jump in without looking for a way out? What a foolish goat you are.’

And he ran off into the forest.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Was the goat any sillier than the fox? Do you have evidence?

In this story, and other old stories, foxes are often shown to be cunning. What does this mean? Why might story-tellers have made out that foxes are cunning?

Do you think the goat should have trusted the fox? Why? Why not?

How could the story have ended if the fox had been able to be trusted?

What do you think made the fox act as he did?

Can your friends trust you? Can everyone trust you? Do you have evidence?

What is trust?

Do we need trust? Why? In what ways?

Thought for the Week

Look at the things you do during the week and think about trust- at home, at school, playing games. Can other people trust you?

Philosophy 16: Snakes and Ladders

Before the session, ensure that the Snakes and Ladders boards have been photocopied on to paper or card, and that there are enough pairs of dice. Have three or four players per game.

1. Practise the exercise in focusing attention. Remind pupils that there should not be any tension – rather, they should rest in the sharp focus of the present moment.
2. Recall the story about the Fox in the Well, and see if the children have noticed anything about trust. Discuss any observations.
3. Tell the children that today they are going to play ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and give out the necessary equipment.
4. Without giving any instructions (other than putting the pupils in groups), ask them to start their game.
5. After 10 – 15 minutes playing, move to the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

36	37	38	39	40 Finish
35	34	33	32	31
26	27	28	29	30
25	24	23 Miss a turn	22	21
16	17	18	19	20
15	14	13	12	11
6	7	8	9 Miss a turn	10
5	4	3	2	1 Start

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did you feel when you were told we were going to play ‘Snakes and Ladders’ today?

Did you know how to play. If you didn’t, what did you do? How did you feel?

How did you choose who went first, second etc.? How did the first person feel? How did the last person feel? It is important to remember what feelings you had – not make them up now.

Did everyone play fairly? If yes, why?

If someone didn’t play fairly, can that person say why? What was the result? Did the person change their behaviour? Why?

If you were winning during the game, how did you feel? Why? Could you have been winning and have felt differently? What could have been the causes?

If you were losing, how did you feel? Why? Could you have been losing and have felt differently? What could have been the reason?

If you were the final winner, what were your feelings? How did you feel towards the other players.

If you were a loser, how did you feel? How did you feel towards the winner? Why?

Did it really matter who won or lost? Why?

Can thinking about the way we feel during the playing of games change the way we might play next time? Why? How?

Philosophy 17: Whose Turn is It?

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. Introduce the story and read ‘Whose Turn Is It?’ Discuss the concept of ‘theme’ with the class, and how it is possible to have an ‘inner’ meaning to a story – like a moral in a traditional fairy tale. In this way the story could be considered in relation to its content and also in relation to a theme.
3. Ask two or three questions about content, then ask children to formulate one. Give time. Then working in pairs, they each ask a partner their question.
4. Ask children to consider what the theme could be, and again give time for this. They should again share this with their partner, this time giving reasons as to why they consider it a main theme.
5. As a class, children should now feedback their ideas so that a web of themes can be built up on the board. Draw links between similar or linked ideas, and likewise link opposing ideas but in a different colour.
6. Consider, as a class, the range of themes and ideas shown. Linking with the theme in the ‘Questions for Thinking’, now move to them as an aid to developing the dialogue.
7. At the end of the dialogue, consider again the main ideas from the dialogue as against those on the board. For example, how many were investigated in the enquiry?
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’, and ensure all understand what to look for.

Whose Turn is It?

Mum had broken her arm. Just like that. She’d tripped over the back door step and fallen onto her arm on the concrete.

Jamie had seen her. He ran and called his older sister, Joss. She knew what to do. She helped mum up and pinned up the sleeve of her jumper to support the arm. Joss had done First Aid at Guides.

‘Well done, Joss,’ said mum. ‘That feels more comfortable.’ ‘Everyone should learn what to do in an emergency,’ said Joss.

Joss had offered to lend him her First Aid Manual but Jamie couldn’t be bothered reading it. He was only eight anyway. He could always ask someone else to help.

Mr Martin next door had driven mum to hospital where they had put a plaster on her arm.

‘Now, I’ll need some help,’ said mum the next day. ‘There are a lot of things I can’t do with only one hand. You can take it in turns to help.’

Joss went first.

Jamie went round to his mate, Ahmed’s house. Mum had said to be home at six o’clock but Jamie forgot to look at his watch and it was half past when he got home.

‘You’re late!’ said Joss. ‘Come and have your dinner.’

She was really getting bossy! As if she was taking mum’s place. ‘Your turn to help tomorrow,’ said mum.

But the next day Ahmed lent him a video and he started to watch it. ‘Come and help, please,’ called mum.

Jamie pretended not to hear.

‘I can’t open this tin with one hand,’ called mum.

The film was getting really exciting. Jamie couldn’t leave it now.

Later Jamie began to feel hungry and went into the kitchen. Mum was doing the washing up with her good hand. Joss was drying the dishes.

‘Where’s my dinner?’ asked Jamie

‘It was your turn to help today,’ said mum.

‘You have to do your share,’ said Joss. ‘You can’t just leave it to other people.’

‘We were going to have sausages and mashed potato and baked beans,’ said mum. ‘Your favourite.’

Jamie’s mouth began to water.

‘I waited for you to help me peel the potatoes,’ said mum. ‘And I waited for you to help me open the tin of beans.’

Jamie’s eyes gleamed.

‘But all I could make on my own was a TV dinner in the microwave and there were only two left.’

‘So?’ said Jamie. ‘Where is my dinner?’

‘There’s a bit of ham in the fridge,’ said mum. ‘You’ll have to make yourself a sandwich.’

Jamie pulled a face.

‘And tomorrow is your turn to help,’ said mum. ‘And it’s your responsibility to be here on time.’

Jamie made sure he was.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think it was fair that Jamie’s mum treated him like that? Should she just have shouted at him?

Do you think Jamie helped the next day? Why?

Are there other reasons that Jamie should have helped – not just because he wanted a nice meal?

Is there anything else that could have happened besides just taking turns?

What makes you help other people? Is it for something for you, or something for the other person?

What would your life be like if other people didn’t help you?

How do you feel when you help others? Do you have examples? (Note: Real, not imaginary!)

What makes us not help others sometimes?

Thought for the Week

Look at your own actions during the week. Do you help others? How? Why?

Philosophy 18: Giving Attention Activity

Background note: Consciousness (giving attention to something), is very powerful. In the physical world we are aware and understand more of something if we consciously give it attention. In the mental world, ideas ‘grow’ (seem larger and more important), when given attention. Can this be used to positive effect?

For this session, some flowers (a picture, or something generally considered beautiful) some rubbish (or something generally considered not nice or beautiful), and if possible a balloon, will be needed.

1. Practise the focusing exercise, directing children’s attention to the sense of sight. Remind them that in doing this practice of being in the present, things seen should not be named – just seen and known.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’, and discuss any new evidence that has been observed about ‘fairness’ and taking turns.
3. Discuss with the children, the concept of ‘attention’ and giving attention to something. Relate it to their experiences during the exercise.
4. Ask the pupils to look at the flowers – just to give them attention. What did they notice? (They may give observations such as ‘They seemed brighter’, ‘They were beautiful’, ‘They made me feel happy’, and so on.) Question people, in order to get accurate descriptions and observations.
5. Repeat the exercise with the other item.
6. Let the class watch as you blow up the balloon. (Use a pump) Pose the children a problem – ‘If the air going into the balloon represents our attention to something, what is this showing us?’ Discuss this, allowing dialogue to develop if possible. (Note: If we give attention to something it becomes clearer, we know more about it, ideas become ‘bigger’ or your skills grow, just like the balloon, and so on.)

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Can we make use of this knowledge?

How might it affect our learning?

When would be good times in school to really focus our attention?

How might it affect the way we treat people?

If we think nasty thoughts about someone, what is the effect?

If we think nice thoughts about someone, what is the effect?

Can we choose what we give attention to?

Close by asking children to consider what for them was the most important idea to emerge in the dialogue.

Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

Try to see the kinds of things to which you give attention. Practise focusing attention – for example when doing a piece of writing, playing football, or perhaps a test.

Philosophy 19: The Easter Egg

 

1. Practice the exercise in focusing and calming.
2. Recall last week’s session and have someone describe the activity. What was its purpose, and were any strategies used?
3. Introduce and read ‘The Easter Egg Hunt’.
4. Get children to make up three questions about the story and then in groups of three or four, ask each other the questions.
5. Give thinking time so that everyone can consider what they think is the main point of the story. In the same small groups, share the ideas, giving reasons for their choices. Children can question or ‘challenge’ if they think someone’s evidence is not very robust.
6. Ask each group to choose what they think is the best idea, then put these forward to the class. Note these on the board. With everyone’s attention on the five or six ideas gathered, ask pupils how it would be possible to change each one into a philosophical question. (If necessary, tell children the nature of a philosophical question. Give an example, ‘Why are some people greedy?’). One by one, write down the questions that emerge from the ideas.
7. Stimulate the dialogue using the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
8. For a closure to the session, let the group collectively trace the route of the dialogue. (That is, what were the ideas at the beginning, how did they develop and change, and what was the finishing position?)
9. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Easter Egg

It was nearly Easter. School had broken up for two weeks and Danny was looking forward to Saturday very much. Mum had said he could have an Easter Egg hunt in their garden and he could invite his friends round.

Danny talked about it so much that everyone got a bit fed up. ‘Oh, not the egg hunt again!’ complained his older sister, Rachel. ‘We’re having chocolate crème eggs,’ said Danny.

‘In my day we had hard boiled eggs which we painted,’ said Granddad. Danny turned up his nose. ‘What if you find two or three eggs?’ he said.

‘How could you eat them all?’

‘Better for your teeth,’ said Granddad.

At last Saturday came. Mum had the eggs all ready in a box. Danny gazed at the bright shiny paper wrapping and then counted them silently, pointing to each one as he did so. There were ten!

‘You get your nose out. I’m going to hide them in a minute,’ said his mum. ‘I’m going round to Barry’s house,’ said Danny, and went out of the door.

But he didn’t go to his friend’s house. Instead he hid behind the hedge where he had a good view of the garden. He saw his mum come out with the box of eggs in her hand. Then he watched as she carefully hid the eggs, one by one. Soon all ten were hidden and Danny grinned to himself and skipped off down the road.

‘Mum’s hiding the eggs now,’ he said to Barry. ‘She sent me here so I wouldn’t see where she hid them.’

Barry grinned and made smacking noises as he licked his lips.

It was fine but cold that afternoon. Danny, Barry and three friends stood at the back door, their eyes darting round the garden in case any of the eggs were glinting in the sunlight, waiting to be found.

‘Ready! Go!’ said mum.

They all dashed forward and then scattered to all corners of the garden.

Of course, Danny knew where all the eggs were and in no time he had five of them.

The funny thing was, it was no fun knowing where they were.

Everyone looked at him trying to hold them all and his mum frowned.

Barry had found two eggs, Lindsay one and Joanna one. Poor Mike had none at all and was looking very disappointed, almost in tears.

‘Well,’ said mum. ‘I think you should give one of yours to Mike, Danny. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?’

Suddenly the excitement had gone out of the afternoon. The happy faces of Danny’s friends were now gloomy. Danny gave Mike an egg and one by one his friends went home.

Some big dark clouds rolled over the sky and it began to rain.

‘Let’s go inside, Danny,’ said mum. ‘You’ll want to enjoy your Easter eggs.’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

What made Danny hide behind the hedge?

Why do you think the game was no fun for Danny?

How do you think Danny felt when he had five eggs? Why?

How do you think Danny’s friends felt?

Do you think his friends would come back for any other party or game? Why?

Danny was greedy and he cheated. What was the effect of him cheating?

What is cheating? (Gain several different examples).

Why do people cheat? Do you cheat?

Some people don’t cheat. What do you think stops them from cheating?

Is it easier to cheat or not cheat? Why? What makes you say so?

What would happen if everyone cheated? Didn’t cheat?

Thought for the Week

During the week, look to see whether you are greedy or not. If you are, why are you? Is it possible to be greedy about just some things?

Philosophy 20: Connect Words

 

Before the lesson, have a piece of A4 paper for each pupil and a piece of A2 paper for each group of four.

1. Practise the calming exercise. Ask the children what they noticed going on in their mind, for example, did they drift off into daydreams for long periods or were they able to stay quite focused?
2. Remember the story ‘Albert Einstein’, and enquire as to what has been observed about wonder and wanting to learn. Did anyone notice particular things that they are curious about or want know about?
3. Tell the children that today they are going to play a game of connecting words and ideas.
4. Move to the instructions for the game.
5. Complete the report-back, getting groups to discuss the game, how they found it, any difficulties. Did they feel they got better at linking ideas as the game progressed?
6. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Connect words – activity

This game can be played individually to begin with, then as a group game. It is about crea- tive thinking, and making connections. The players must have reasons for connecting one word with another, and if the connection is too tenuous, the other players may challenge.

1. Individual Game. Each pupil has an A4 piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Someone in the class volunteers a starting word, for example ‘television’. Everyone writes the word at the bottom of the page and draws a circle or balloon around it.
2. On their own, each child thinks of another word that for him/her is in some way concep- tually connected to the first. For pupil A this could be ‘cartoons’, because s/he likes to watch cartoons. S/he draws a short line from ‘television’ then writes ‘cartoons’. Pupil B thinks of a television programme because s/he likes to watch that programme. S/he writes the word on her paper and similarly connects them with a short line.
3. The game continues, with children making as many connections as possible, but always being aware of why they are linked. They should try to be creative in their links, and not always state the obvious.
4. The lines of connection may branch if a dual or multiple concept is thought of – ‘broth- ers and sisters’. This may lead to two branches ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ or may result in the names of each brother and sister being named, with new lines being started by each name.
5. Group Game. Children should be put into groups of four and have an A2 sheet of paper. Each person puts forward a starting word and the group decide on which one they would like to start the game.
6. The word is written in the middle of the sheet this time, and each player says their first connecting word, and gives their connection.

Television

This process has started four lines of development. From now on, when it is a player’s turn, the person may add a word to any one of the lines of development, not just their own. On connecting the word, the pupil must say what the connection is. As in the first game, the other players may challenge if they think the reason is too weak, and the group takes a vote as to whether or not to allow the word.

1. Once players become a little practised, they may think of a word that fits more than one line at the same time. These can count for points, with two simultaneous connections being two points, three connections being three points, and so on. When making multiple connections, pupils should draw each connection with a line. The player who makes the most points during the game is the winner.

For example:

balloon rubber

ball rubber

Thought for the Week

During the week, see how ideas are linked. If you have a problem to solve, try thinking of as many linked ideas as possible to give you possible solutions.

(This would get two points)

Philosophy 21: Beauty and the Beast

1. Practise the exercise, asking pupils what they observed about the sense of touch. The important thing is not to list the things realised through touch, but rather that one can be brought into the present moment through touch.
2. Introduce and read the story ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
3. As in previous weeks, ask the pupils to consider an important theme in the story, and why they think it is so. Give time.
4. Working in small groups of four or five, children should discuss the identified themes and choose the one they think is the strongest.
5. Briefly returning to work as a class, review the nature of philosophical questions.
6. Working with their group theme, each group should now turn it into a philosophical question. After a suitable time, these should be written on the board. If necessary, groups can give any explanation of their choice.
7. Making a link between questions on the board (and possibly using an appropriate one to begin) use the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate dialogue.
8. To close, connect the questions on the board, and what has been covered through the enquiry.
9. Introduce the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Beauty and the Beast

The traditional story of Beauty and the Beast reminds us that there is more to beauty than just the outward physical. It reminds us to look beyond the obvious before making judgements about things. There is also beauty of conduct – the way we behave, with all the associated feelings and attitudes.

There was once a merchant who had three daughters. Just before he set off on a busi- ness trip, he asked them what they would like him to bring back for them.

‘A necklace please, father,’ said the eldest.

‘A gold chain for me please,’ said the middle daughter.

But the youngest daughter, whose name was Bella, just shook her head. ‘I want nothing, father,’ she said. ‘Just bring yourself back safely.’

‘Nonsense,’ said their father. ‘I want to bring you a gift.’

Bella thought for a moment. ‘Then I would like a rose, please.’

The merchant went about his business and he bought the necklace and the gold chain for his two eldest daughters but decided to leave the rose until last so that it would be fresh. Then he forgot about it.

He was almost home when he suddenly remembered the rose and started to look around for somewhere to buy one. As he turned a corner he saw a beautiful garden and there, in the centre of a circle of lawn, was a rose bush laden with blooms.

The merchant got off his horse, walked through the great wrought iron gates and stepped onto the grass circle. Surely the owners wouldn’t miss one rose. He chose a deep red rosebud and plucked it off the bush.

CRASH! A loud noise filled his ears and there, in front of him, stood a hideous beast. Its eyes were red and glaring, its lips curled back from a cluster of pointed grey teeth. Three horns protruded from the green scaly skin of its head and long strings of saliva dripped from its black tongue.

‘Thief!’ growled the beast. ‘You are stealing my roses.’ The merchant explained about the gift for his daughter. ‘That is no excuse! Your life is forfeit.’

‘Oh please,’ begged the merchant. ‘Please spare my life. I have three daughters to support and care for. I am really sorry for stealing your rose.’

‘I shall spare your life on one condition,’ said the beast. ‘Seven days from now you must bring me your youngest daughter.’

The merchant arrived home to a great welcome from his daughters and gave them their gifts, but the youngest daughter could tell that something was wrong and he was unhappy. Eventually he told her about the beast and the condition it imposed to spare his life.

‘I will go, father,’ said Bella, bravely. So the next day they set off.

Like her father, Bella was shocked when she saw the beast and could hardly bare to look at his ugliness. The beast told the merchant that he could visit Bella every week and that he meant her no harm.

Bella was shown to her luxurious rooms and over the next few weeks she had everything she wanted. She only had to ask for something out loud and some invisible servants brought it to her. The beast hardly ever appeared. Bella spent the long days walking in the vast gardens or reading books.

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But Bella began to get lonely. Apart from seeing her father or sisters once a week she never saw anyone else at all.

On one of the rare times when the beast appeared, Bella asked him to walk with her in the garden. Then she told him about her father and sisters and of her mother who had died when she was a child.

Bella talked more and more with the beast. He was so kind and thoughtful that she lost her fear of him and the walks in the garden became a daily event that she looked forward to. She told him about her life and her interests and her hopes.

Then one day the beast did not appear. Bella felt really disappointed and she waited an hour before going to look for him. She searched the whole great house, looking in rooms she had never been in before, but she couldn’t find the beast.

Then, as she passed an open window, she heard cries and groans of pain coming from the front garden. Down the stairs she ran, through the front door and out to the very rosebush from which her father had plucked the rose. There was the beast, lying on the ground with blood pouring from a great wound in his chest. He was gasping for breath and twisting in agony.

Bella fell on her knees beside him. ‘What’s happened? Who did this to you?’

‘The people of the village,’ whispered the beast. ‘They think I am evil. They don’t like me living here.’

Frantically she tore off a piece of her skirt and tried to staunch the flow of blood. ‘Oh please don’t die, beast,’ she wept. ‘Please don’t die. I love you so much.’ There was a flash of bright light and suddenly a prince stood before her, his handsome face smiling with love and gratitude. ‘You have broken the spell!’ he said.

Bella wiped her eyes and stared at him in bewilderment.

‘I was enchanted by an evil magician,’ explained the prince. ‘And the spell could only be broken if a maiden declared her love for me of her own free will. You did that. Ugly as I was, you still loved me.’

Bella and the prince were married and . . . Lived . . . happily . . . ever . . . after!

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

• 1. What do you think made Bella say she would go to live at the Beast’s house?
  2. Was this decision brave or foolish? Give reasons for your opinion.
  3. How did Bella’s relationship with the Beast change? What was the cause of the change?
  4. When Bella said she loved the Beast what do you think it was that she loved?
  5. Has anyone ever changed what they thought about someone once they knew them better?
  6. Are there different ways of thinking that someone is beautiful? What are they?
  7. Are there different types of beauty? (If children need help with ideas – beautiful ideas, beautiful conduct, beautiful things we appreciate through the senses.)
  8. When we say someone or something is beautiful, what is it we mean? Are we clear about what we mean?
  9. What do you think beauty is?

Thought for the Week

During the week, try to observe as many different kinds of beauty as you can. Is there anything that is the same about them?

Philosophy 22: Truth or Lie?

1. Do the calming exercise. Ask the children for observations on what was experienced. Try to determine if they are aware of the focus of their attention. The aim is to be aware of the present moment.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’ from last week, and seek observations or thoughts on beauty. What have pupils noticed?
3. Tell the class that this week they are going to have a story about a class game. Read ‘Truth or Lie?’
4. Ask the class what they think is the main theme of the story. Give time for this, then ask them to turn the theme into a philosophical question. Again, give adequate time.
5. Working in groups of four or five, pupils should share their questions, then decide on which is the strongest, which will be their group question. If necessary, the group can take a vote in order to find the question.
6. As a class, the groups report back, giving their question and reasoning. The questions should be listed on the board. The class now vote on the question they would most like to explore through enquiry. The person who thought of that question begins the dialogue by stating the question then giving their viewpoint and reasoning.
7. Teachers, if necessary, refer to the types of questions in the section headed ‘Creating Good Dialogue Through Questioning’ at the beginning of the book.
8. If the natural dialogue comes to an end, move to the next favourite question on the board.
9. To close, let the class give suggestions for their own ‘Thought for the Week’.

Truth or Lie?

Mrs Tracker was talking to her Year 1 class about honesty.

‘Sometimes we don’t mean to lie,’ she said. ‘We just exaggerate a little because it makes a better story. Now, what we’ll do tomorrow is, each of you will make a statement and the rest of us will guess whether it’s the truth or a lie. We can question you about it before we make a decision.’

The next morning Toby was the first to put up his hand. ‘Tell us your story, Toby,’ said Mrs Tracker.

‘We have two ducks come to live on our pond,’ said Toby. ‘Where did they come from?’ asked Mike Bonner.

‘They just flew in from the sky,’ said Toby. ‘Mum says they might build a nest and have babies.’

‘Can you stroke them?’ asked Megan Smith.

‘Of course not,’ said Toby. ‘They’re wild. But they don’t fly away when you go near, they just waddle on the lawn and keep their distance.’

‘Well, who thinks this story is true?’ asked Mrs Tracker. Most of the class did.

Toby laughed and shook his head. ‘We don’t have a pond. It happened to my Gran and Granddad though.’

‘Who’s next?’ asked Mrs Tracker. Rosemary put up her hand.

‘My Gran had an elephant come to her house as a guest,’ she said.

There were snorts and laughter from the class. ‘Rubbish!’ said Mike Bonner.

‘Lie!’ shouted Lucy Fame.

Rosemary shook her head. ‘It’s the truth,’ she said.

‘Would anyone like to ask Rosemary any questions?’ asked the teacher. ‘Yeah, did it sit on a chair and have tea?’ asked Lucy.

Everyone laughed.

‘It didn’t have tea,’ said Rosemary. ‘It just had water, and it didn’t sit on a chair.’ ‘Where did it come from?’ asked Jason.

‘A circus,’ said Rosemary.

‘Perhaps you’d better tell us the whole story, Rosemary,’ said Mrs Tracker.

‘In those days a circus had animals,’ began Rosemary. ‘This circus used to come to the town every year and the whole circus would parade down the street to advertise it. A band played and everyone came out to see it. Well, my Gran was a little girl and was just coming home from school and there was the circus parade going along her street, with the elephant at the front. When it got near her house the circus man told Gran that the elephant was very thirsty with all the travelling and did she know where it could get a drink. Gran went and told her mum and they dragged the old tin bath into the garden and filled it with water so the elephant could drink. It drank the whole lot too and then sprayed some on Gran.’

When Rosemary had finished, Mrs Tracker said: ‘Well, everyone, do you think that was the truth or a lie?’

‘The truth!’ they all yelled.

Philosophy 23: The Tortoise and the Hare

1. Remind children of the two-fold importance of ‘the exercise’, that is, for the psychological harmonisation (calming effects) of the body, and for learning to ‘be in the present’. The latter helps develop meta-cognition (knowledge and insight into one’s own thinking) which naturally follows when one is present. Practise the exercise together.
2. Remind pupils of the importance of reflecting on each week’s dialogue and keeping in mind the ‘Thought for the Week’. Important insights and evidence can become apparent at any time.
3. Read the story ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’.
4. The pairs’ work is to examine the meaning of the story through language. This will be a major emphasis for this term. The importance of speaking and listening, in the learning process, should be emphasised to children. The first person should tell the second person what they think the story is saying – its meaning. This can include both literal and ‘inner’ meaning (that is related to theme or philosophical point). When this has finished, the second person evaluates what has been said, and gives their own opinion. For example, ‘I agree with you about . . . but I disagree that . . . I think . . .’ This process should be fully understood by children before they begin.
5. Take two or three examples from pupils, then bridge from an appropriate idea to using the ‘Questions for Thinking’ for the dialogue.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Tortoise and the Hare

This well known fable shows that having patience with something means giving a measured and focused response, and is not to do with seeking a solution through an erratic, irrational expenditure of energy.

Hare was always making fun of Tortoise.

‘You’re so slow,’ he would say. ‘Can’t you move faster than that? Look how fast I can run.’ And he would leap away over the fields in a flurry of grey fur.

Sometimes Hare laughed at Tortoise’s shell.

‘It’s silly carrying your house on your back. Why not leave it at home?’ Then he would roar with laughter at his joke.

Tortoise said nothing. One thing tortoises have is patience and he knew that one day he would show Hare that patience and determination were more important than just speed.

One morning Hare was being particularly annoying and Tortoise’s patience ran out. Just for a moment though, just long enough for him to say, ‘I bet I can beat you in a race to the farmhouse.’

Hare fell about laughing. ‘Done!’ he said. ‘I’ll give you half an hour’s start, or even half a day.’ He chuckled again.

All the animals gathered round to watch and Horse drew a line in the dirt with his hoof

‘Ready, steady, go! ’ shouted Horse.

Off they went, Hare leaping and bounding, Tortoise just plodding.

Hare came to some juicy dandelions and stopped for a nibble. He had plenty of time.

Tortoise plodded on. He didn’t try to rush.

Hare met some of his friends in the field and stopped to play. He wasn’t worried. No tortoise could ever beat him.

Tortoise plodded on. He had waited a long time to teach Hare a lesson.

When the sun grew hot Hare sat down under the big oak tree for a while and nodded off to sleep.

Tortoise plodded on. Past Hare he went. He didn’t stop for a rest. He didn’t stop for food. He was going to win this race.

Hare woke up. He didn’t know that Tortoise had passed him. Now he was too hot to run so he just ambled along confidently.

Tortoise plodded on. He wasn’t hot. His shell shaded his body. Now he could see the barn. Was he going to win, or would Hare come leaping past at the last minute? Tortoise didn’t stop to look round. He would get there.

It was only as Tortoise plodded the last few steps towards the barn, that Hare spotted him, a small moving dot in the distance ahead. He sprang forward, but it was too late.

Tortoise had been determined and nothing had distracted him along the way. He had won the race and at last silenced Hare’s teasing forever. It had been worth waiting for this moment.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Tortoise’s patience stopped for a moment and he challenged Hare to a race. Have you ever had an occasion when you were being patient, then (as is sometimes said) your patience ran out?

Can anyone say why their patience stopped? What made you change?

Can patience actually ‘run out’? What actually happens?

Can you describe the differences in how the Hare and the Tortoise each approached the race? Think about their attitudes.

What sort of attitude would you say is connected with patience?

Where does patience come from?

Can you get more patience or does it stay the same?

Why do some people seem to have more patience than others? How are they different?

What is patience?

What do people mean when they say, ‘Patience is a virtue?’

Is patience always good (a virtue)?

Thought for the Week

Watch during the week to see if you are patient with other people. If you find yourself not being patient, try to see what is stopping you.

Philosophy 24: Banner Activity

Before the session, have a piece of A2 paper ready for each group, as well as some felt pens.

1. Practise the exercise, and praise the children who were obviously connected to the present moment.
2. Referring to last week’s story, what have children noticed about patience, either in themselves or in others. Was anything learned about how it could be developed?
3. Recall the poster activity last term, when ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ aspects of being a human being were discussed then depicted on the poster. Allow the children to say what they remember of these aspects.
4. In three’s, let the children discuss each other’s positive and good qualities. Each child can only speak of the other two, not themselves. The list should be refined to the best two or three qualities of each person.
5. On an A4 piece of paper, the groups should design a logo or picture which graphically portrays (and sums up) the qualities of their group.
6. Once the design has been complete, it can be transferred to a banner shaped piece of paper (1/2 an A2). The banners can be displayed, to remind the children of the qualities.
7. To close the session, ask pupils what, for them, was a new idea they have heard today, and what had they learned from the activity.
8. Discuss the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Thought for the Week

Look to see what qualities people have. What do you see of your own qualities? How do they affect other people?

Philosophy 25: Fair Share

1. Practise the focusing exercise, in particular drawing children’s attention to the importance of listening.
2. Recall last week’s ‘Thought for the Week’ and see what children have observed about it. Does anyone have more evidence or new observations?
3. Read ‘Fair Share’, then practise again the examination of the meaning through articulating it – as in Session 1. If possible, children who did not have first turn in Session 1 should do so today. They explain what they understand the meaning of the story to be, then the second person evaluates and replies. Remind children of any appropriate protocols such as ‘I disagree with you about . . . , because . . . , I think . .

.’ (For use as appropriate).

1. Hear two or three examples from children, then bridge from an appropriate one to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to stimulate the dialogue.
2. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Fair Share

Judy jumped up and down with excitement.

‘We’re going on a picnic!’ she shouted, and raced upstairs to tell her sister Iona.

‘I don’t want to go’, said Iona. ‘I’m going round to Sarah’s house and we’re going to watch a video.’

‘We’re going to the river, ‘ said Judy. ‘You like the river. We can swim.’ Iona looked irritably at her four year old sister. ‘Go away,’ she said.

‘You’re coming Iona,’ shouted Mum up the stairs. ‘Come and give me a hand. I’ve got to feed Stuart before we go. Everyone must do their share.’

Stuart was their baby brother. Iona sighed and went downstairs.

While Mum fed Stuart, Dad got the car out and packed the folding chairs and table. Then he went and fetched the picnic box down from the loft. Judy got her swimsuit and beach ball and put them in the car.

Iona didn’t do very much.

Mum put Stuart in his stroller and came into the kitchen.

‘You could have started the picnic,’ she said to Iona, and began to prepare it herself.

It was a bright and sunny day and when they reached the river Iona began to cheer up a bit. It was better to be here than indoors watching a video, but she would never admit it.

Dad set up the table and chairs and carried the picnic box to the table while Mum settled Stuart and spread the tablecloth. Judy took the food out of the box and put it on the table.

Iona put on her swimsuit and went to test the water in the river. Then she waded along the edge collecting shiny pebbles. She caught a glimpse of a kingfisher further downstream and went to see if she could see it. Then some squabbling ducks caught her attention.

At last, feeling hungry, she wandered back to where her family were already eating.

She looked for a hard-boiled egg, but there were none left.

She looked for a sausage roll but they had all gone too. The picnic box was almost empty.

‘It’s not fair!’ wailed Iona. ‘You haven’t left me any. I’m hungry’.

‘It’s not fair that you didn’t help get the picnic ready,’ said her Mum. ‘It’s not fair that you let other people do your share of the work, but you expect a share of the food!’ Then Mum reached for a plastic box behind a tree.

‘You’re lucky we’re not as selfish as you, and we saved you some.’

She handed the box to Iona. Inside was her share of the picnic. Iona sat down quietly and began to eat.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Do you think it was right to play the trick on Iona? Was it fair?

Think about sharing. How does a family work? Why?

Do you do your fair share? At home? At school? Do you have evidence?

Should we share tasks and work? Why?

What does ‘fair’ mean?

Is fair always the same? (Does it mean the same thing in different circumstances?)

Does working together have consequences? What are they and what is your evidence?

What stops us sometimes working together, and doing our fair share?

Thought for the Week

Try to see whether you cooperate with others at home and school. Do you do your fair share? Why? Why not?

Philosophy 26: Design a Game Activity

1. Ensure that before the session, copies are made of the blank board – one per group of four.
2. Practise the focusing exercise.
3. Working in groups of four or five (of mixed ability), the task is to design a game. Tell the children that the object is to use the board to design a game. They can make up the object of the game and the rules. This will need discussion, but try not to give ideas, as this game is to promote creative thinking and team working.
4. Give the pupils 20 to 30 minutes, as necessary. If a group has absolutely no idea how to begin, give them a direction and let them work from there. Don’t give them a complete plan.
5. Move to the Report-back and ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure everyone understands the ‘Thought for the Week’.

REPORT-BACK

1. Get each group to have two people report back on how they set about designing the game. What did they first do/decide? What they did next, and so on. They should not describe the game, only the design process. (Having two people makes sure all are involved and contributing.)
2. Allow for questions from other pupils after each group report-back. (The teacher should also probe further into what went on, through careful questioning.)
3. The other two pupils from each group should now explain their game, and its concept and rules.
4. Pupils may seek further clarification about the games and how to play them, through questioning. They may also offer suggestions for improvement.

36	37	38	39	40
35	34	33	32	31
26	27	28	29	30
25	24	23	22	21
16	17	18	19	20
15	14	13	12	11
6	7	8	9	10
5	4	3	2	1

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

How did you feel when first asked to design a game? What was the cause of these feelings?

Did the feelings change as you carried on with the task? How? What was the cause of the change?

How did you feel when you had finished? Why?

• 1. Did you feel confident that your game was a good one? (Probe this with further questions.)
  2. Did you feel confident in reporting back to the class? Why? Why not? (Further probe the associated feelings and their causes. Was it reasonable to hold these feelings?)

Thought for the Week

Working in a team is often more effective than on your own. What other situations can you notice during the week where working together is very effective?

Philosophy 27: The Emperor’s New Clothes

1. When doing the exercise, it is possible to ‘watch’ thoughts in mind, as well as out through the senses. This ‘watching’ is from a stillpoint and not being ‘lost’ in the ideas/thoughts. This is related to developing the ability to give attention.
2. Recall the ‘Thought for the Week’ and discuss anything the children have discovered about teamwork. Praise any examples that they may have.
3. Read ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. As in earlier sessions, children should now work in pairs to examine the meaning of the story – both literal and philosophical. Use the technique practised in earlier sessions, with one person articulating the meaning then the second of the pair evaluating and responding. The importance of this process of articulating aloud in the learning process, cannot be over-emphasised.
4. Hear several children reporting back their opinions and reasons then bridge from a suitable idea to the ‘Questions for Thinking’ to begin the dialogue.
5. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

None of us wants to be thought stupid, and the emperor and his subjects were no exceptions. We all sometimes pretend to know or understand things we don’t know – but fortunately without such embarrassing consequences!

There was nothing the Emperor liked better than clothes, in fact he had a set for every hour of the day. He spent all his money on costumes of the very finest cloth and loved to take part in processions along the streets to show them off to his people.

One day two weavers arrived in the city proclaiming that they could weave a very special sort of fine cloth which was as light as a spider’s web and made of the very best thread to be found in the whole world. The special feature of this material was that it appeared invisible to all incompetent and stupid people and could therefore only be seen by those who were clever and wise.

The Emperor thought that this would be a wonderful way of showing up those of his courtiers who were not fit to hold their jobs so he ordered a suit of clothes to be made from this fine fabric.

The weavers ordered silk and satin and gold thread and demanded a lot of money, which they stashed away. Then they got to work on their empty looms, pretending to weave.

The Emperor became impatient after a while and although he did not consider himself stupid, he was a little afraid to go himself to see how the weaving was getting on, so he sent his old minister of weavers.

There sat the weavers at their looms, their arms going this way and that as if they were spinning. The minister of weavers could not see anything, because, of course, there was nothing to see, but he did not want to admit it.

‘Do you not like this fine cloth?’ asked one of the weavers. ‘Just look at the colours! Feel the texture.’

‘It is exquisite,’ said the minister of weavers. ‘The Emperor will be delighted.’

A grand procession was arranged and the night before, the weavers stayed up all night so that the clothes would be finished. They cut and sewed in the air and everyone was very impressed with their hard work. The clothes were admired constantly.

Finally it was time for the Emperor to be dressed. He stood in front of the weavers who were holding the invisible clothes up for his inspection. The Emperor, of course, was dismayed that he could see nothing, but he didn’t admit it.

‘Please remove your clothes, Sire,’ said one the weavers. The Emperor did so. Then they pretended to fit his shirt, his trousers and his cloak, doing up buttons here and there (there were no zips in those days). Then they stood back admiringly.

‘Oh, what a good fit, Sire!’ said one.

‘Wonderful!’ said the other. ‘The colour suits you admirably.’

The Emperor looked in the mirror, turning this way and that, pretending to admire the clothes.

‘All is ready, Sire!’ cried one of his chamberlains. The Emperor went outside and the procession began. He strode along proudly, two chamberlains behind pretending to carry the train of his cloak.

All the people had heard about this fabulous cloth and they praised the two weavers and admired the clothes.

All except one little girl, who had been away staying with a relative and hadn’t heard about the special cloth.

‘The Emperor has nothing on!’ she shouted.

Her father heard her. ‘The innocent voice of a child,’ he said, and began to tell other people. Soon the cry went up. ‘The Emperor has no clothes on!’

The Emperor knew that they were right but he carried on the procession, his head held high, while his chamberlains still pretended to carry the train that wasn’t there.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

Why did the weavers play this trick on the Emperor and his people?

Why was the Emperor taken in by the trick?

How do you think the Emperor felt when he couldn’t see the cloth?

The Emperor had a feeling inside that there was no cloth, so why didn’t he trust that feeling? Was that wise?

How do you feel when someone calls you stupid or laughs if you don’t understand something straight away?

Do you think that the person who laughs (in question 5) knows everything? Is that person wise? Why or why not?

The Emperor believed what the weavers said. Do you think you should believe everything that people say? Why or why not? Would that be wise?

Should we believe everything in the newspapers or on television? Why? Why not?

Do you think the writers in newspapers or magazines deliberately lie? Do you have any evidence?

Could there be other reasons for things being not quite true? (for example exaggerated) What are they?

Thought for the Week

Think about what you read and listen to. Do you think it is all true? Why do people say things that are not true? (Note to teacher: Critical examination of a newspaper article as a class would be useful)

Philosophy 28: Musical Activity

This session is further practice at the focusing and listening skills (in relation to music) practised in Block 1.

Before the session choose two pieces of music – a piece of Tchaikovsky (or Liszt) and a piece of Bach. Allow children to hear enough to stretch their attention time, but not to the point of boredom. This may be from five to fifteen minutes, depending on the individuals.

1. Practise the focusing exercise.
2. Ask children what they noticed after thinking about the theme of last week’s story. Were they flattered by anything anyone had said to them? Did they believe everything they were told? Did anyone have any other observation?
3. Introduce the session by asking the children to just listen to the first piece. (It doesn’t matter which one.)
4. Ask the children what they had observed about the listening process. Where was their attention? Were there any ideas in mind? What were they? Was it difficult to focus on the music? Were they only able to listen to it?
5. Now listen to the second piece – with the same instruction.
6. In groups, let the children discuss the pieces. What were their emotional responses? Did they like one better than the other? Why? If they didn’t like them, why not? Why is it hard to just listen?
7. Introduce the ‘Thought for the Week’.

Philosophy 29: David Livingstone

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. What have children noticed about their thoughts during the week? Is it easy or difficult to observe them? Can they be controlled? Why? Why not?
3. Read ‘David Livingstone’, then arrange the pupils into groups of four or five. In the same manner as the previous pair work, one child should begin to articulate the meaning of the story – what is it saying? Next, the other three briefly say what they agree or disagree with, before the second pupil gives their opinion and reasoning. Again, the other three evaluate, and so the process is repeated until each child has had a turn.
4. Ask each group to choose, through discussion, the opinion and reasoning they enjoyed the most. These should then be reported back to the class, and a list made on the board.
5. Draw everyone’s attention to the points on the board, then move to the dialogue through the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’

David Livingstone

Missionary and Explorer (1813-1873)

The air was still and hot. David could feel the sweat soaking his clothes, brought on by the humid climate and his malaria. He was tired. So tired. His work, however, wasn’t finished yet. There were still the slave traders out there. Only a few days ago he had come across a village where many people had been slaughtered, while the rest had been taken as slaves. The young and fit ones.

Now even he was treated with suspicion by many natives he met. Many of his own followers had deserted him and his medicines had been stolen.

Just a few days rest in this village of Ujiji and he would be on his way again. He would find the source of the Nile River if it was the last thing he did. It had taken him years to get this far.

David was just drifting off into a doze again when he suddenly heard shouting outside his hut. It was one of his faithfuls, Susi. She burst in through the doorway.

‘A white man is coming’, she said, panting and pointing up the track.

David rose slowly from his bed and walked to the doorway, shading his eyes against the strong sun.

Sure enough a stranger was approaching the village and had already attracted much attention from the children.

The stranger walked straight up to David, his hand outstretched. ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’, he said, with a smile.

David grasped the man’s hand and nodded.

‘I’m Stanley from the New York Tribune,’ said the man. ‘My, I’m glad to find you! It’s taken a year. The whole world is concerned about you – you’ve been gone six years.’

Was it that long? David thought. Six years trekking across Africa, mapping this great continent and spreading the word of God. Six years away from Scotland and his wife and children.

‘I’ve brought you supplies and medicine,’ said Stanley. ‘You look as though you could use them.’

Soon the two men became good friends and when it was time for Stanley to leave, he tried to persuade David Livingstone to return with him to England, or at least go to the coast where he might have some medical attention.

However Livingstone would not go. For two more years he carried on until he was too weak to walk and the natives had to carry him on a litter. He never did find the source of the Nile, but his exploration made it easier for others who followed later. He was the first European to cross Africa from west to east, and he discovered the Victoria Falls, amongst other important features.

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

David Livingstone was trying to do several things. What were they?

What qualities did David show? (Discuss the concept of qualities first, if necessary.)

David kept trying and trying – even though he faced great difficulties. What were the difficulties? What was the consequence of this attitude of persevering? (Explain perseverance if necessary.)

What qualities do you have? What evidence or examples do you have?

Where did you get them from?

What are the consequences of having them?

Can you get new qualities? How? From where?

Do you persevere with tasks or give up easily? Why?

Thought for the Week

Do you persevere (keep trying) when there are difficulties in doing something, or do you give up easily? Watch your actions for evidence.

Philosophy 30: Tower of Hanoi

1. Ensure that before the session, a copy is made of the game – on card if possible.
2. Practise the focusing exercise.
3. Working in pairs, the task is to cut out pieces 1 to 5 from the first sheet. These are then placed in order of size (largest on the bottom) on point ‘A’ on sheet two. Initially, children should only use two or three pieces and put the others to one side.
4. The object of the game is to move the pieces from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ or point ‘C’. That is, to move the pile, in the same order, to another point

Rules:

Only one piece can be moved at a time.

A smaller piece cannot be placed on a larger piece

Each piece may sit at ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ during the process.

1. Once each child has tried it with two pieces, they should describe to their partner what strategy (strategies) they used. If a child or pair cannot do even two pieces, the teacher should help them get started by suggesting a starting strategy.
2. The pupils then move to trying to use three, four then five pieces. They may well not get to five, or even four, but they should try. It is important that at each stage the children should tell their partner what they are doing. Each pair can try to work out a successful strategy between them. If stuck, pupils should revert to the last successful effort (perhaps with three pieces) then try to see how that might be taken to the next level.
3. Finish the session by having a report back on the difficulties encountered, and the strategies used to try to overcome them.

 

1

2

3

Cut out these shapes

4

5

A

B

C

Philosophy 31: The Monkey and the Crocodile

We started with a very interesting ice breaking exercise. Padmanabh asked all the kids to make a lot of noise. The level of noise was directed by him by raising or lowering his hands. The next ice breaking exercise was to wash your hands with air. The last activity was to put your hands together in a namaste. Close your eyes. And based on instructions press and relax the hands. Next you take them apart and you get them back together. Padmanabhan did the session by getting feedback from students about how they felt after these activities.

 

Next he moved on to a story session. Started by asking students: ‘How would you like to listen to a story?’ Every student raised his hand. Then Padmanabh went on to narrate the story of the monkey and the crocodile.

 

The story was done with a fair amount of interactivity. For example questions would come in like what happens when we take out a heart. After the story telling students were broken into groups of 3 and they were asked to discuss why did they think this story was told to them.

 

Student responses:

To entertain us.

Don’t lie to your friends

Don’t lie

Don’t trust others

Don’t underestimate anyone

 

The story was then revised again by ferreting out the details out from the students by asking questions: What did the crocodile tell the monkey? Is lying good? Did the monkey do the right thing by lying? An interesting kaizen: Those who want to answer, don’t raise your hands, but sit with your hands folded.

 

We then moved on to the philosophical discussion: When do we lie? The answers were interesting:

When we are in trouble

When we want something.

To escape punishment.

When we make a mistake.

When we don’t want to do something.

To make fun

Sometimes we also lie when you want to threaten others

 

Then another question was asked by the moderator: Do we lie to make others happy? Students came up with responses that even if the food cooked is bad, they still praise their mom.

 

Next moderator question: How do you feel after you lie? The response was: we feel bad and possibly afraid. One suggestion from students was that we should lie to friends not parents. Because parents can scold you. One student confessed that when they have a toilet break he goes to play. And when the teacher asked him why he took more time. He mentions that he had to go to number 2 in toilet.

 

The assignment that was given to students during the week was to ask observe when did they lie? When is it bad to lie? One week later another session is planned where students will discuss their experiences.

 

A very interesting way of taking feedback was we use the same hand tricks that had been used at the start of the session. An upheld hand meant a good session; a horizontal hand meant a bad session; a hand held down meant a bad session. They were asked to close their eyes for this exercise. Only one student give an average report the rest thought it was great.

1. Practise the calming and focusing exercise.
2. Remind children of last week’s game and recall the discussion. Has anyone played it since? Did they find any new strategies?
3. Read ‘The Monkey and the Crocodile’, then arrange the pupils into groups of four or five. In the same manner as the previous pair work, one child should begin to articulate the meaning of the story – what is it saying? Next, the other three briefly say what they agree or disagree with, before the second pupil gives their opinion and reasoning. Again, the other three evaluate, and so the process is repeated until each child has had a turn.
4. Ask each group to choose, through discussion, the opinion and reasoning (from 3) they enjoyed the most. These should then be reported back to the class, and a list made on the board.
5. Draw everyone’s attention to the points on the board, then move to the dialogue through the ‘Questions for Thinking’.
6. Ensure children understand the ‘Thought for the Week’.

The Monkey and the Crocodile

A folk tale from Kenya

Once Monkey and Crocodile were really good friends. Monkey lived in a tree right on the banks of the river. It was cool in among the lush green leaves and from there he could look down and watch what was going on. Every day he scampered down the trunk to the ground and drank from the river.

Crocodile lived in the river and often came to lie on the bank and bask in the hot sunshine.

One day when the two friends were talking, Crocodile said, ‘How would you like to come to my home for a feast? We are going to have all sorts of delicious food and I would like to invite you as my friend.’

‘Thank you very much,’ said Monkey. ‘But there’s just one problem. I can’t swim. How can I get there?’

‘No problem,’ said Crocodile. ‘I shall give you a ride on my back.’

So the next day Monkey scrambled onto Crocodile’s back and they set off into the river. When they reached the middle of the river Crocodile said,

‘Our king is very ill. He has been told that the only thing that will make him well again is to eat a monkey’s heart. I am going to take you to him so your heart can be removed and the king will recover.’

Monkey was very frightened at what Crocodile had said. He looked out over the vast water. How could he escape? He couldn’t swim. He must think hard.

At last he said, ‘I would like to help your king but there is a problem. Didn’t you know that monkeys leave their hearts at the top of the tree in which they live? If you take me back I will get it for you.’

So Crocodile turned round and swam back towards the shore. As soon as he was close enough, Monkey leapt off his back and scampered up his tree. Then he picked a raw yage fruit and shouted down to Crocodile, ‘Open your mouth, Crocodile, and I will throw my heart down to you.’

Crocodile opened his mouth wide and Monkey threw down the hard fruit that smashed Crocodile’s teeth.

Monkey laughed. ‘You fool! How could you believe that story! Surely you know that no-one can live without their heart inside them!’

QUESTIONS FOR THINKING

If monkey was a friend of crocodile’s, why did crocodile plan to give monkey’s heart to the king?

What is a conflict? (Note: This may need some scaffolding)

 

Crocodile had a conflict between being friends to both monkey and his king. Do you ever have a conflict between being friends to two people? Does anyone have an example?

How do you resolve it – how do you deal with it?

Monkey had to use his thinking skills to get out of a tough situation. Was his plan a good plan? How do you know?

Do you think monkey was wise? Is there any evidence?

Do you think crocodile was wise? Is there any evidence?

Did crocodile know a lot? How do you know?

What is being wise?

Is knowing a lot, the same as being wise? Are they connected? How?

Thought for the Week

Do you use your knowledge wisely? Look at your actions during the week for evidence.

Philosophy 32: Titanic Dog

1. Do the calming exercise.
2. Discuss what ‘day-dreaming’ is, and whether children had noticed if they were dreaming during the exercise. Which seems more real – the dreaming state or the focused one?
3. Explain to the children they are going to use a true story as a stimulus this week. They will be trying to identify any philosophical issues in the story, and then make some philosophical questions. Read ‘Titanic Dog’.
4. Ask two or three questions to ensure the pupils have understood the content of the story.
5. Discuss the nature of philosophical questions. (Refer to glossary if unsure.) Get children to spend time on their own, thinking of what they think is a good theme. They should have reasons for their choice.
6. In pairs, children should discuss their theme and discuss together how the themes could be turned into a philosophical question.
7. Each pair should join together with another pair, and through discussion decide on the best (most interesting) question.
8. Write each group’s question on the board. Review the range of questions provided and ask the children to consider the question they would most like to investigate through enquiry. Take a vote to determine the chosen question.
9. Ask the person who originally put forward the question to begin the dialogue by re- stating their question and putting forward their own view on it.
10. In building the enquiry, remember to use a variety of questions and encourage the children to do the same. Use ideas from ‘The Importance of Skilful Questioning’ section, if necessary.
11. If the dialogue runs out, move to the second favourite question, and so on.
12. Let the children discuss and formulate a ‘Thought for the Week’.

Titanic Dog

Have you heard of the Titanic? It was a big ship which hit an iceberg and sank in 1912. I expect many of you have seen a film about it. Many people drowned, but in amongst the tragedy there were many stories of great bravery and sacrifice.

One story of bravery was not about a person but about an animal – a dog called Rigel.

Rigel was a Newfoundland, which is a very big dog. He belonged to the First Officer. It was the officer’s duty to try to get as many people as possible into the lifeboats. There was chaos on board ship. People had thought the Titanic was unsinkable and didn’t believe that it could be sinking. The First Officer tried to calm the panic and get the lifeboats filled with people and safely lowered into the sea.

Suddenly the ship tipped up and sank very quickly with many people still on board. The First Officer and his dog, Rigel were amongst them.

Rigel did not drown but after the ship had sunk he swam round and round in the freezing water looking for his master. He never found him.

Some time later another ship arrived to search for survivors. It was called the SS Car- pathia.

One of the lifeboats full of people was right in its path but as it was night they couldn’t be seen. The people were too cold and weak now to shout or wave their arms and the Carpathia steamed towards them.

Rigel was cold and weak too but he saw what was happening. He swam between the lifeboat and the approaching ship and barked continuously. The Captain saw him just in time and ordered the engines to be stopped. Then he saw the lifeboat full of people they had almost run down.

The people were taken on board as well as Rigel. While they were taken below to put on warm clothes and to have some hot food, he refused to leave the deck and stood with his paws on the rail still searching the black cold sea for his master. It was a long time before the crew were able to take him below for some hot food.

Throughout this long horrible night, Rigel never once thought about his own safety and comfort. His first thought was to save his master, and then to save the people in the boat.

Philosophy 33: The King and his daughters

We ended with a very interesting demonstration of Philosophy for Children, where we did a roleplay of kids in a classroom. We started by removing our footwear. Pressing the feet to the ground. Closing our eyes. And concentrating on the sounds around us. This is the Calm Down exercise. The next exercise was a follow up of what had been discussed in the classs in the last week. For example the topic of discussion could have been ‘What is Truth?’ So what have been the implications of untruth at home.

This was followed by a story. A king had three daughters. One day, he called all three of them and asked them: how much do you love me? One of them knew that the king was very fond of gold. In order to impress him she said I love you as much as I love gold. The middle daughter knew that all the coins in his Kingdom were minted in silver. She mentioned to him that I love you as much as I love silver. The youngest surprised the king by telling him that she loves him as much as she loves salt. The king asked the youngest daughter why did she trivialiase her love. He was very angry with her. The youngest daughter left the room and went to the kitchen. She told the cook: ‘Please do not put any salt in the food that is made today.’ The king realised his foolishness during lunch time.

This was followed by a question and answer session. Who do you think loved her father the most? The rules for answering were simple.

• If you have an answer you need to raise your hand.
• If someone else is speaking you will not interrupt.
• You will not put down anyone’s ideas.

We had an interesting range of answers. My own one was that the question itself was wrong!

We then moved on to the next question. ‘Do parents behave the same with all their children? This lead us to probe: what is love? We came up with 6 definitions of love. Makrand had a very good observation: all the definitions are only expressions of love!

Good resource for Moral Science stories:

http://www.english-for-students.com/Short-Moral-Stories-for-Kids.html