Critical Thinking on a Budget

Teaching can be very expensive.  Between trying to save the planet, shaping young lives, and writing lesson plans, it can be challenging not to buy just one more thing for the classroom (Okay english majors, I know this is poor parallelism).  That's why I love resale shops.  For whatever reason, people love to donate their thinking games to thrift stores.  I'm not complaining, remember I'm on a budget.  I love adding thinking games to my learning center rotation.  Some of my favorites include:





Is it possible to be in love with a game?  This
is a great game for teaching deductive thinking skills and strategic thinking.





Rush Hour.  Isn't the name exciting?  You can just imagine
all of the critical thinking skills that can come out of sitting in rush hour traffic.
Really speaking though, this is a great deductive reasoning game.

I know this game looks like a mess waiting to happen
but have I ever steered you wrong before?  This game is great for
teaching visual and strategic thinking.

Teaching Critical Thinking

Hello Everyone,
One of the greatest challenges of any educator is teaching students how to think critically.  This blog is part one of two parts on this topic. 

Critical Thinking Game Chart



I label each critical thinking game based on the type of thinking skill it covers.  I usually provide a few minutes each week for students to play the games.  If they are focusing in on games that teach deductive reasoning, I connect deductive reasoning into the guided reading or shared reading lesson by asking students to apply deductive reasoning to determine the setting, possible answers, or for ruling out answers during test prep.

These are some of my favorite games. 

Excellent Deductive Reasoning Games
Mastermind
Guess Who
Chocolate Fix

Excellent Strategic Thinking Games
Othello
Rush Hour
Battleship

Excellent Inductive Reasoning Game
Mastermind (It requires inductive and deductive reasoning)

Upcoming topics in the next week include:  teaching creative and critical thinking, integrating art with reading, literacy center ideas, and organization strategies.