P4C

 Source: YouTube, Edward Monkton

This week, our P4C session was definitely our best discussion yet. We watched a fantastic video; 'The Pig of Happiness' as our stimulus and had a very grown up discussion. We talked about what happiness is and whether you would miss it if you had never had it. We wondered whether, in a world without happiness, you could feel sadness. Different children explained their ideas using images of scales, or comparisons to light and dark. Without having seen the light, would you know if it was dark? Without ever being happy, could you be sad? Do you need to have experienced the opposite to be able to understand it? Some children have even started to make links between previous P4C sessions, drawing on ideas from past discussions we have had. Wow!

Here are the questions we came up with this week:

1. Can everyone have happiness in their lives?
2. What would the world be like without happiness?
3. Can happiness mentally disturb you? (This group explained that they were wondering whether too much happiness can be bad for you.)
4. How and why does happiness spread?

The question we voted to discuss was: 'What would the world be like without happiness?'

At the end of our discussion this week, everyone in the class offered an interesting and insightful final thought. Well done everyone!

P4C

Source: The Imperial War Museum

This week's P4C sparked another wonderful discussion. Our stimulus this week was a painting; The Menin Road, by Paul Nash. After playing some games, we looked closely at the painting before coming up with some questions to discuss.

The questions that each group put forward were:

1. Can people still have happiness in their lives during wartime?
2. What did war do to mankind?
3. Was the war as dreadful as it seems?
4. Should women have been allowed to fight in World War One?


We voted for question 4: 'Should women have been allowed to fight in World War One?' It was a fantastic discussion and led to many ideas being raised about gender, strength and equality. Well done, everyone!

P4C

 Source: ijb

Friday's P4C session was fantastic! This week is Friendship Week at school, so every class in the school will be using the wonderful 'Something Else' as a stimulus for Philosophy.

Source: Book Trust

 

We started early, on Friday afternoon, to give us more time to hold our enquiry.

The questions that were suggested by the groups were:

1. Is it rude to say 'No!'?
2. Why are some people envious of others?
3. Are we all the same in some way?
4. Why is everyone different?

Source: Book Trust

After editing the questions and looking for assumptions, we held a vote to decide which question to discuss. The winning question was:

'Is it rude to say 'No!'?'

We had a great discussion. Most people seemed to agree that sometimes it can be rude to say no, but it depends how you say it. We talked about 'white lies' and when it might be ok to lie to protect someone's feelings. We also talked about when it might be important, or even essential, to say no.

Well done everyone!

P4C

Source: Michael Foreman, Amazon

This week, we had another super philosophy lesson. Tying in with our new WW1 topic, our stimulus this week was the wonderful picture book by Michael Foreman, 'War and Peas'.

Source: Michael Foreman, Booktopia

We enjoyed the story, which gave us lots to think about, and we loved the fabulous illustrations!

Here are some of the questions the groups wrote:

1. Why do some people keep everything for themselves when there are others that need more?
2. Why are some people greedy?
3. Is money important?

And many more... it was a very interesting stimulus!

Source: Michael Foreman, Amazon

The question we voted to discuss was, 'Is money important?'

We had a great discussion and lots of topics were raised. St. Clare's are becoming very good at listening to each other before offering opinions- I especially like to hear sentences that begin with; "Building on what X said..." or "I agree/disagree with X because..." or "I think X is right, but maybe she could think about..."

Well done, team!