November’s Scholar Star Skill is Critical Thinking, and our Kinder & 1st grade students practiced an important part of critical thinking: analyzing. Analyzing helps us look closely at clues so we can understand new information and answer questions.
Students learned that analyzing means looking closely at details and clues to understand something better.
We used simple examples they know, such as predicting what happens next in a story by looking at the pictures.
We asked:
“When we see something, what do we do to understand it better?”
Students shared ideas like:
asking questions
looking for details
noticing clues
To practice analyzing, students participated in a hands-on sorting activity.
Students worked on:
Sorting pictures into two groups:
Things in the Sky ✈️ / Things Not in the Sky 🌳
Explaining why they put each picture where it belonged
Identifying the clues that helped them decide
Examples students shared:
“I put the sun in the sky because I see it there!”
“The tree doesn’t go in the sky because it grows on the ground.”
This helped students practice using observations and reasoning, just like real critical thinkers.
Analyzing helps us:
Look carefully at information
Notice important clues
Understand new things
Answer questions thoughtfully
Students learned that critical thinkers don’t guess, they look for clues!
Ask your child:
“What clues can you find?”
Try this with things around the house, sorting toys, noticing weather patterns, or predicting what will happen next in a story.