Over the last fortnight, P2 have started learning about Thinking Skills.  We have been looking at two kinds of thinking in particular: De Bono’s Thinking Hats and Guy Claxton’s Growth Mindset and Learning Muscles.

De Bono’s Thinking Hats are a way of describing a way to think about something.  We have been using the Yellow Hat, which helps us focus only on positives, so we have been spotting the good things about our work and learning.  We have started to look at Black Hat thinking, which means looking for the negatives and problems with something, and using the Green Hat to solve these problems or find ways to improve the negative points.

We have also been learning about Guy Claxton’s Learning Muscles.  These are a set of skills that successful learners use to maximise their thinking power and improve their learning.  We have a display of these skills in our classroom and it involves some very big grown-up words, so we have been referring to them by their picture.  Some of the skills we have concentrated on in recent days include Perseverance (the Spider Skill), which helps us keep going, even when we are finding it hard; Managing Distractions (the Ear Defenders Skill), which helps us to concentrate and focus on the task in hand; and Listening (the Ear Skill), which we use to make sure we get all the information we need.

If you know a child in P2, ask them which skills they find useful in their learning.  You might be surprised what they say!