Outcomes for Life – At-Home Activity: Critical Thinking

A child’s ability to problem-solve is critical for their overall development. By teaching these skills young, children are better able to apply higher level thinking to analyze, understand, apply reasoning, and form conclusions later in life.

At Kiddie Academy^®, we encourage Critical Thinking as part of our Life Essentials^® curriculum. Here’s an activity you can do with your little one to help them continue to strengthen their problem-solving skills at home:

Zoo Engineers

Materials:

• Toy animals
• Blocks
• Boxes
• Cardboard pieces

Directions:

• Explain to your child that they have the exciting job of being a zoo engineer!
• Give them different animal home challenges to build. Examples include:
  • The giraffes need a home with a door tall enough to fit through
  • The elephants need a home with a door wide enough to fit through
  • The cats need a climbing structure
  • The penguins need an iceberg mountain to climb
  • The zookeeper needs a house to sleep in at night
• Encourage them to use different building materials and animals as they work