Message from Our Desk

Thinking skills are the mental activities you use to process information, make connections, make decisions, and create new ideas. Effective thinking skills are developed over a period of time.

What skills do preschoolers need?

Preschool skills checklist

• Reading & Writing.

• Mathematics.

• Logic & Problem-Solving.

• Science.

• Personal & Social Skills.

What are the 7 critical thinking skills?

The skills that we need in order to be able to think critically are varied and include observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making.

Critical thinking happens when children draw on their existing knowledge and experience, as well as on their problem-solving skills, to do things like: Compare and contrast. Explain why things happen. Evaluate ideas and form opinions. Understand the perspectives of others.

For young children, this ability translates into a mindset that is conducive to growth and lifelong learning. Critical thinking empowers them to cultivate a growth mindset that is ready to absorb new information, make meaningful connections between the existent knowledge and newly acquired information, and most importantly use their knowledge bank to solve problems. This makes critical thinking a formidable weapon in the mental ancillary. So much is the significance of Critical Thinking that it has become one of the most vital skills of the 21st century.

That said, young children, according to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, are concrete thinkers until the age of 12years. They learn mostly through a trial and error approach and are unable to think ‘critically’ unless explicitly encouraged.

Critical Thinking Activities for Kids

1. Inculcate Creativity

Encourage your child to draw a scene to explain her thoughts. We need critical thinking skills to depict our thoughts into pictures. That is the reason why art is valued. It is not an easy task. For older children, play games like Pictionary and ask them to justify what they draw.

2. Play Sorting Games

Classification and sorting skills are great for logical reasoning. Ask your child to sort same list of animals/objects using different attributes like size, color, geometry, shape etc. Group animals into categories based on their habitats, eating habits, body structure, reproduction mechanism etc. These sorting activities help children see the differences and similarities across various groups, thus enhancing their understanding.

3. Solve Puzzles and Brainteasers Together

These are great for problem-solving in kids. Be it jig-saw, tic-tac-toe, riddles, mazes, or whatever your child loves. Solving puzzles and brainteasers together helps your children learn from you and formulate a strategy of their own. While doing these activities alone may be frustrating for kids, a playful encouraging parent can make a great difference.

4. Real Problem Pretend Play

Bring in a real-world problem like water scarcity to pretend play and ask them to think of solutions. Such games help children learn about their environment and surrounding. And at the same time helps them understand the challenges faced in the real world. Motivate them not only to think of solutions but also to implement at their level.

5. Get Creative with Blocks

Blocks are great at building logical skills. They help children give a sense to their imagination. Also, they are great for loose parts play. Every time, you encourage your child to repurpose old blocks into new games, neurons fire up in her brain.

6. Inspire Thinking

Ask them to think of answers to their own questions. Aid the process of arriving at the answer rather than providing the answer. Once they have arrived at a possible explanation, ask them to reason with their own answers. This process of thinking about thinking – Metacognition, will help them find flaws (or support) in their own arguments and fine-tune their opinion. Thus, making them better critical thinkers.

7. Teach Cause and Effect

Let them explore and test independently in a safe environment. Lot of discoveries were made by simple explorations. Such expeditions often teach a good lesson on cause and effect. A great game for teaching cause and effect is the old classical Marbles. Same goes for Pool and Snookers.

8. Let Them Hypothesise

When reading a story, stop midway and ask them what they think is going to happen, how is the story going to end? Open-ended questions like these fire up the grey cells and force them to think of logical and creative outcomes. Give them time to think and come up with an elaborated answer. You can even use real-life situations to ask open-ended questions like, when struck in a traffic jam, ask them to think of a solution that could help ease congestion.

9. Play Guessing Games

Guessing games are excellent at building reasoning skills. Our favorite is ‘Animal Guess Who’. Drop hints describing the animal and then let your child guess it out.

10. Riddle Them

Riddles are a great way to fire up neurons and get your child thinking logically and critically. And the best part – riddles are SUPER fun! Your kids wouldn’t even know that you are secretly working on their critical thinking skills.

Critical Thinking is a tool that aids us in making informed, rational decisions. It enables us ‘how’ to think and make sense of the data and information presented to us. Simply put, it is the ability to analyze the existing information to make a logical decision. Critical thinking helps us think beyond the obvious. It is an essential life skill that is required across all walks of life.

A person with a critical thinking mindset is able to question, interlink information & ideas, make rational choices, and most importantly justify their own decisions. This is crucial for the development of the human brain as it shifts the focus from being a passive listener to an active learner.

Ms. Jagruti Lohana

Centre Head

Olive Trails, Global

Curriculum Learning Engagements

Math - Counting Pebbles

Children always have fun playing with numbers.

The different objects such as the leaves and pebbles generate interest and motivate children to play and learn with numbers. Pebbles can be a helpful tool to introduce children to mathematics. At this age, it's great to count together with a child, just for fun.

The Playgroup learners had fun by putting the correct number of marbles in the given number and made a nice number line. This engagement helped in fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination

Sensory Activity – Sponge Printing of Butterfly.

Print is a great way for a child to express themselves and learn about shapes and colors. Using just two or three colors and various sponges can create a wide variety of effects. Toddler Activities involving the use of paint are a great way to help develop fine motor skills as well as a great visual way to reinforce color recognition.

The playgroup learners engaged in the sponge and colours, making a beautiful butterfly with different colour combinations. They did sponge dabbing and made a butterfly. This activity helped in self-expression with paint , eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills

Literacy - Letter 'W'

Yarn Tracing

Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills children need to develop before they are able to write. These skills contribute to the child’s ability to hold and use a pencil, and the ability to draw, write, copy, and colour. A major component of pre-writing skills is tracing.

This wool shape and letter tracing works on letters and shape recognition it also works in helping in handwriting formation. Soon our learners will start writing two-letter words. This activity helps in developing their fine motor skills so they will be able to hold pencils with a pincer grip for a longer time.

Learners of Nursery pasted the wool, thread, ribbons or lace on the letters A, B, C, D which were written by parents. Some learners even decided to trace their short and sweet names.

Math - White Colour

White colour represents a sign of purity or innocence. Some of the positive meanings that white colour convey includes cleanliness, freshness and simplicity.

The young learners were introduced to the concept of white colour wherein they had to make clouds using cotton and create beautiful scenery with their own imagination.

This activity will help them to develop their pincer grasp and cognitive skills.

Literacy - Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping is a visual overview of the information that uses colour, words, and images that connect related information to each other.it is very useful for children in learning and understanding subjects or stories. It helps in putting a child’s thought into visual pictures, symbols, numbers, and words.

Our K2 learners engaged themselves in doing mind mapping on the story of (The Foggy Day) where they used their thinking skills to draw story-related pictures, beautification, and colouring was also done in an effective and efficient manner.

The engagement helped learners to enhance their thinking skills and creativity.

Overall the activity connected with the child's imagination.

Curious Explorers

Bee hand puppet!

Puppets are engaging toys for kids. Puppets can help and support oral language skills and communication of children. It helps in social and emotional development, and helps children to learn and understand the world around them. Puppet-play encourages the child's imagination and creativity.

Here in this activity the playgroup learners were asked to make a hand bee puppet with the paper cut outs. They made wings and legs and the body part with the paper and then they joined all the parts and made a beautiful bee puppet. This activity improves motor skills, it helps in eye hand coordination , and increases thinking skills.

Bee Hand Puppet

Puppets have always fascinated children. But, did you know that the puppets aren’t just for entertainment? Benefits of puppet play include helping children learn various academic and social skills.

Playing with puppets can help learners overcome their shyness, speak up more, and develop confidence in themselves. Various studies have proved that puppet play is a very effective method for fostering cooperation, enhancing creativity, and improving communication in preschoolers.

Learners of Nursery made these honey bee hand puppets. They were so beautiful. Each bee was different yet very adorable.

Rainbowfish

The Rainbowfish provides an opportunity for learners to think about the nature of happiness and the good life: how happiness relates to sharing, beauty, friendship, and feelings.

Our K-1 learners were introduced to the rainbow fish story and they were asked to draw fish and they filled rainbow colours in that and used silver foil to decorate the fish scales.

Drawing and colouring have many benefits at an early age. It improves fine motor skills, encourages focus, and nurtures creativity.

Binoculars Activity

Binoculars are versatile tools that provide enlarged images of distant objects, used in a variety of settings, such as hiking, wildlife viewing, birding, hunting, stargazing, golf, sports events, and theatre.

Our K2 learners engaged themselves in making this activity where they used toilet paper roll, or cardboard tube, decorating materials like stickers, crayons, etc... Tape or glue, punch hole, yarn, or ribbon.

This activity helped children to develop their creative skills. After completion, the activity looked very beautiful.

Citizenship - Kerela

Door Toran

Onam is an important agricultural New year for Kerala. It is the time to celebrate the harvest and charge up for the new year. During Onam, there is a rangoli made with fresh flowers.

Fresh flowers are a very important part of celebrations in the south of India. Since we care for our mother earth, we decided to spread the joy of Onam at our own homes by making the flower thoran using paper flowers.

Learners of Nursery had to make fan-folded flowers and stick leaf cut-outs on ribbons. Last BUD not least, these torans were ready to be hung on our doors.

Home Décor - Elephant

Kerala is called as gods own country because of it's scenic beauty and lush greenery.

Elephants in Kerala are referred to as “sons of the sahya.” They are used for religious ceremonies and their presence in Hindu temple festivities is considered auspicious.

They engaged in making their own beautiful room decor. So, the K1 learners made decorative elephants since it is treated as a sign of good fortune, and it also can use for home décor.

It enhanced their creative skills & imaginative skills. The learners were thrilled and excited about doing this activity.

Pulikali Mask

Pulikali meaning is a recreational folk art from the state of Kerala, which is performed by trained artists to entertain people on the occasion of Onam,an annual harvest festival. Literal meaning of Pulikali is the play of tigers hence the performance revolves around the theme of tiger hunting.

Our K2 learners engaged themselves in making tiger masks with the help of paper mask and orange poster colour, later they stuck two ears and used black sketch pen to draw eyes, stripes and moustaches.

It helped learners to develop creative and imaginary skills.

Overall, the activity looked bright and beautiful.