P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler

Table of Content
LESSON 1: (Re)Orientation to P4C .................................................. 3
1. Getting Comfortable: ........................................................................ 3
2. Giving Reasons:................................................................................... 3
LESSON 2: If/Thens with Pictures.................................................. 3
1. Review the Giving Reason activity.................................................. 3
2. If/Then Activity ............................................................................... 4
LESSON 3: Thinking about Thinking, Community, and Safety
through the Body....................................................................................... 4
THE P4C KID Game................................................................................. 4
Materials:............................................................................................... 4
Beginning the Lesson:.......................................................................... 5P4C GAMES ................................................................................................. 7
LISTENING GAMES.............................................................................. 7
TELEPHONE .......................................................................................... 7
FOLLOW THE LEADER ...................................................................... 8
REPEAT/SHARE................................................................................... 8
JAMP! WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY? ........................................... 9
THINKING GAMES.............................................................................. 10
PILES .................................................................................................... 102

P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler

LESSON 1: (Re)Orientation to P4C
1. Getting Comfortable:¾ Speaking loudly (and softly), holding the ball when speaking,raising hands to get the ball (to speak), etc.
¾ Practice saying something (e.g., ALOHA) in a soft voice andthen a loud voice-- altogether and then around the circle[bring volume meter] find medium voice¾ Introduce the community ball and its connection to speaking¾ Pass the ball around the circle and invite kids to saysomething when they have the ball-- name, favorite thing todo, some silly word
¾ Practice raising hands and passing ball across the circle
2. Giving Reasons:
I am special BECAUSE .....
¾ ask “Are you special?” -- go around circle and have each kid
affirm that they are special¾ introduce BECAUSE-- maybe have big colorful card with
BECAUSE written on it¾ invite kids to raise hands and answer “How Come?” to theabove question-- “I am special BECAUSE.........”¾ wrap-up
LESSON 2: If/Thens with Pictures
1. Review the Giving Reason activity
Go around circle with ball-- do something fun... perhaps ask“What color do you feel like today?” and then encourage

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
them to answer “How Come?”. For example, “I feel like thecolor purple today BECAUSE.........”
2. If/Then Activity
Bring in hand-drawn pictures of different IF situations andask kids to fill in the THEN parts.... beginning with obvious
examples and then moving on to more open-ended scenarios(for these THEN responses, we can (when possible) ask“How Come?”)LESSON 3: Thinking about Thinking, Community, and Safety
through the Body
THE P4C KID GameThis lesson is designed to be a playful way of introducing the kids
(and visually reminding them throughout the term) to some skills
that are necessary for maintaining a safe community. In thislesson, we focus on things like safety (through feelings), inquiry(through exercising the brain), and sharing our ideas (by raisinghands and then speaking) through the visual representation of alittle kid body. By looking at the different parts of the body, we
can see in what ways they are enlisted to build our community andto deepen our inquiry.
Materials:
3 larger pieces of paper• One to draw the head (include ears, eyes, nose, and hair—
but leave out the mouth)• One to draw the torso (just draw a shirt without the
arms)

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler• And one to draw the legs (preferably sitting crosslegged)

4 smaller body part pieces:• One with a big smiley mouth (mouth closed)• One with an open mouth (for talking)• Two arms (to raise or keep in the lap)

2 talking/thinking cards:• One card will indicate the P4C kid is talking.
• The other will show that the P4C kid is thinking.
I have an idea
to share!

I’m thinking
very, very hard!

Beginning the Lesson:
To start, simply line up the head, torso, and leg cards on thefloor. Ask the kids which parts of the body are important for
doing FEE-LA-SO-FEE. Parts like ears might be more apparent tothem at first—and so, when ears are mentioned, simply color in
the ears and inquire as to why ears are important. When it comesto mouths and arms (2 body parts for which we have varying
positions), ask the kids what the mouths or arms should be doing
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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
during FEE-LA-SO-FEE. Demonstrate that the open mouth is forsharing our ideas (and try to coordinate this with the raising of
the hand), while the mouths should be closed while listening andthinking (and coordinate this with arms/hands in the lap).
As your students work their way through the various body parts(mouth, ears, eyes, arms, and legs), listen for indications thatthey want to talk about the heart or the brain. Try to draw out
and highlight their thoughts about how the brain works during
FEE-LA-SO-FEE and try to stress the fact that really hard
thinking goes on in our inquiry (you can use the “thought bubble”
to visually indicate the hard work of the mind). The heart is also
really important in P4C and is a good visual reminder of eachother’s feelings. If feelings or the heart is discussed during yourlesson, reinforce the ideas of safety and community and thepreservation of each other’s feelings. You can either use a cutout
heart to affix to your torso or just color one in when kids bring it
up.
The littlest students have a lot of fun with this lesson. And it
serves as a useful tool for the teacher after the lesson. If yourstudents are being especially rambunctious, or if they are notraising their hands to speak or keeping their mouths closed when
they are thinking, or their arms and legs are sprawled in every
direction, you can simply remind them of the “P4C Kid’s” postureand they’ll whip themselves back to attention—if only for aminute or so.

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler

P4C GAMES
LISTENING GAMESOne thing we noticed when working with the little pre-schoolers
was even though their one-to-one communication skills are quite
good, they may need more practice listening to one another whenengaged in community dialogue. We came up with some games
that work on listening skills for a variety of purposes. The latterones work specifically on listening to each other in a group
discussion or P4C dialogue.
TELEPHONE

Telephone is a familiar game that works on both one-to-one
listening skills and practice in reaching a community goal. All
participants should be seated quietly in a circle. Because thefocus is on listening, stress the fact that everyone needs to bevery still and quiet as the message travels around the circle (it’seasy to get impatient during this game with a large group). The
first few times this game is played the teacher, or P4C facilitator
should think of a message to begin the game (and then later the
students will be excited to come up with their own). I like tothink of something that is playful and yet somewhat easy toremember. For example, “Alligators like alphabet soup” is a goodstarter. Cup your hands and whisper this message to a childseated next to you. Sometimes the kids get giggly, so it’s OK forthem to ask their neighbor to repeat the message—just makesure that no one whispers out of turn. The last one in the circle
chain says the message out loud and then the community cancompare it with the first message. If the message is incredibly
jumbled or is totally different, perhaps you can have a dialogue

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
about what happened as the message traveled around. If thishappens, the students are usually excited to try it again—justadjust the level of difficulty accordingly or have the kids try
making one up.
FOLLOW THE LEADERThis is another recognizable game that can be used as a techniquefor getting the kids ready for listening, talking in turn, andthinking. It’s a really great strategy for those “high energy”
days—but be careful not to escalate the energy level, but, rather,to lead it in a more focused direction. You can play this gameeither as Follow the Leader or, if you find it more effective,
Simon Says, or maybe something that comes somewhere between
the two. As you go through different movements—jumping inplace, standing, balancing on one foot, sitting, tapping your head,sitting…-- try to bring them from high energy, big space, loudactivities to a more quiet, less busy posture. You may want toslowly and gradually harness the energy toward the philosophy
session or you may want to bring it down and then back up again.
You’ll probably have to follow the lead of the children. Hopefully,
by the end of this practice, you and the kids will be seated in acircle, ears open, minds thinking, and hands raised to begin the
dialogue.
REPEAT/SHAREThis technique can be used not only as a listening tool, but also as
the organizing principle of your community dialogue. This activity
begins with a very simple question that all of the kids can answer
in just a word or two. One student begins and says their word (orthe word within a larger sentence), then the next student must
repeat what the previous kid said and then add their own thought.

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
For example, we used this little game after reading and talking
about a book, “My Many Colored Days,” about colors associatedwith different moods on different days. The question then was“What color do you feel like today?” A teacher should probably
model this the first time. The first person says, “I feel like
purple today” and the next repeats and then answers the question
for herself: “Ashby feels like purple today, but I feel like blue
today.” Surely, if this were a regular question for community
dialogue, we would want to give reasons why we feel one way or
the other. But the purpose of this specific activity is to get each
student listening, thinking, and sharing (in that order). Perhaps
after all the community participants have had a turn, you can use
the game as a springboard for further reflection—by comparing
student responses and asking for further explanation about what
they have shared. Some may give an unusual response (such as an
atypical color) or some may refuse to limit their thoughts to asingle idea (e.g., by choosing a “mixed-up color day” or a bluegreen day) and these will provide the perfect opportunity forfurther exploration.
JAMP! WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY?

This technique utilizes one of P4C’s magic words—JAMP (Just A
Moment Please). JAMP is used when a dialogue is alreadyunderway and a community member wants to pause thediscussion—usually to revisit an idea. At the preschool level,
JAMP can be employed when someone (probably a teacher)recognizes a really interesting or thought-provoking idea in whatsomeone has just said and wants to pause on that idea a bit
longer. Because it is easy for our attention spans to lapse attimes, it may prove really useful to have someone repeat thatinteresting idea (it doesn’t need to be reiterated in the exact
same way). By JAMPing or pausing the dialogue and asking a
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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
student to repeat, the idea will be emphasized and the kids canwork on their listening skills. If no one can repeat the idea, havethe original speaker say it again. You can continue practicing the
JAMP move until the kids get the idea that they need to try
really hard to listen to each other. Also, after repeating you can
ask what other people think about the idea—thereby focusing onlistening, but then the additional step of thinking about that idea
and then sharing one’s own idea in response to it. This is how we
begin to “scratch beneath the surface” by thinking together as acommunity.
THINKING GAMESPILESWith the young philosophers, it’s advantageous to have hands-on
activities, visual reminders, or tangible objects to promote thethinking skills or ideas that are the focus of the day’s lesson.
One technique that seems to have been rather successful withthis group is simply called “Piles.” It’s probably best to describe
this technique with an example.
After a discussion about the Hawaiian story “The Musubi Man,”
the next P4C session, we, the teachers, decided to focus on theword “ALIVE” and try to sort out, with the kids, what sorts ofthings are alive and which aren’t. With the PILES strategy, there
are usually three piles (although the kids might come up with a
new one): a positive answer, a negative answer, and a “I’m not sure
yet.”

ALIVE

?????

NOT ALIVE

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P4C Start-Up kit for Pre-schooler
On the first day we did this lesson, we brought in small cards
with a variety of different things drawn on each one—such as
vegetables, flowers, cars, dolls, fire, a squashed cockroach,water, dirt, etc. You can either go through one card at a time anddiscuss each one in turn or you give a card to each kid and have
her place it in the category she thinks is right. If you go withthis second strategy, after all the cards are placed and you
survey the different piles, ask the kids if they would like tochange the place of one card. Whenever the students place ormove cards remind them that they have to have a good reason for
doing so. Either write down these reasons or keep a mental
checklist—these are criteria that the kids are developing for theparticular category—in this case, “alive.” Sometimes it’s hard toarticulate these reasons when originally placing the cards and it
seems they have an easier time when they want to change whatsomeone else has done. This is also a good way to get them toengage each other and share ideas with one another. However, as
they develop their criteria for “alive” or whatever, be sure toremind them of that list and to check all new entries into thatpile by measuring them against this list of criteria. If it doesn’t
fit the criteria, the kids will have to revise their criteria or movethe card to a new pile.
The second session we worked on this lesson again. Instead ofcards, we brought in a view objects for them to see and touch.
For this dialogue, we seemed to get more in-depth analysis andthinking about just a few objects instead of trying to sort
through a whole stack of cards. Again, we did find with the preschoolers that it’s better to have the lessons evolve over a few
sessions, so it’s fun to try both ways.

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