The Picture Frame Game is another great P4C warm-up, and you can also use it for talk across the curriculum.
Pass around an empty picture frame and take turns to say what you can see…
In this picture frame I can see a beautiful grassy plain with wild horses galloping.
If the teacher starts by modelling a detailed description with vivid vocabulary, the children tend to follow suit.
In this picture frame I can see brave astronauts exploring a giant crater on Mars.
Of course you can use any suitable object. For example, In this box I can see… Through this magnifying glass I can see… Through these sunglasses I can see…
I saw a lovely extension of this last year. A Year 1 class were enjoying this game using a pair of glasses. One child said Through these glasses I can see some teddy bears sitting in the woods having a picnic. Her peers listened intently until she took off the glasses, then several of them immediately opened their palms to offer questions.
The child invited her peers to ask questions without any further teacher input.
Impressively, the child with the glasses invited her peers to ask questions one by one, without any further teacher input.
One question was What are the bears eating? In response, she said confidently Let me see, then put on the glasses again and answered Oh, they’re eating a big cake with cherries on!
This is such a simple yet effective way of generating creative thinking, and of getting children to take ownership of their talk.
