There is no doubt that critical thinking skills are one that gets you by every time in life. And who needs it more than children?
Since this type of skill plays such an important role in this lives of how one’s beliefs and thinking is shaped, it is best that teachers inculcate this ability to children when they are young. And once one is able to gather, process, evaluate and use the information to make clear-headed decisions, this will become a part of their life immediately.
So, here are a few methods by which one can teach children critical thinking skills:
Method #1: Riddles and puzzles
This is one of the best ways by which one can teach critical thinking skills to children and by increasing the difficulty of these puzzles, one can also challenge (and change) the way kids can think normally.
Method #2: Critical Thinking Games
Several critical thinking games have been designed to teach children and adults alike in a fun way. Apart from these games, one can also make use of brain teasers, creative writing, optical illusions, and situational stories and so on and so forth to change the way people think and form opinions about facts.
Method #3: Recognizing and Classifying Activities
The best example for this is giving your students a group of animals, and asking them to classify these animals based on whether or not they are vertebrates or invertebrates. If you think about it, you can create several games such as these that can help children learn how to recognize and classify information accordingly.