Year 5 Critical thinking: Spring 2 worksheet

“Feelings or facts?” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 critical thinking unit “Critical thinking: Spring 2”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 19 to 24 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Feelings or facts?

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · Critical thinking · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell a checkable fact from emotional language in adverts and campaigns.

A Look back3 min

1.
Ola tasted one oat biscuit from a tin and said, “All the biscuits in the tin are oaty.” Which label fits this claim?
Hasty generalisationSafe generalisationFalse dilemma
2.
Sam says, “We can only pick apples or pears, so plums are out.” Which statement about Sam’s claim is correct?
A false dilemma: the list has more than two fruitsThe chart shows Sam is rightSam’s claim is a verifiable fact
3.
Sort these four sentences from a made-up village leaflet into the two columns.
A pupil survey: most liked the library.Imagine the lonely books in the dark.The report was signed and dated.Think of the heartbroken readers.
Evidence Emotional language

B Watch me, then you4 min

In this made-up town, a bike shop poster says: “Wobbly brakes could hurt someone you love. Our brake kit is £25. Do not leave it until your brakes fail.” Sort the facts from the feelings.

Watch me

Fact: the brake kit costs £25. You could check that with the shop.

Feeling phrases: “could hurt someone you love” and “do not leave it until your brakes fail.”

So the poster has 1 fact and 2 feeling phrases.

Now you

1.
Look at the bar chart. Which poster used the most feeling phrases?
Bike shopDog foodBus pass

C Your turn6 min

In this made-up village leaflet about a pond, circle whether each sentence is a verifiable fact or emotional language.

A quiet village pond with reeds, a wooden bench and a red brick wall, no people

1.
“The pond was cleaned on 12 May.” Is this a verifiable fact or emotional language?
Verifiable factEmotional language
2.
“Every bird on this pond is at risk, so please act now!” Is this a verifiable fact or emotional language?
Verifiable factEmotional language
3.
“The council tested the water in March.” Is this a verifiable fact or emotional language?
Verifiable factEmotional language
4.
“Without your help, the pond will die forever.” Is this a verifiable fact or emotional language?
Verifiable factEmotional language

Say it out loud: What word or phrase told you which one it was? Could someone check it?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A glass of orange juice on a kitchen table by a sunny window

Mia says: “The juice advert shows a smiling child, so this juice makes children healthy.”

1.
What is missing from Mia’s reason? Write one or two sentences.

E Think deeper4 min

Make a made-up poster for a dog-walking club.

A brown dog lead hanging on a hook beside a front door

1.
Write one checkable fact and one emotional phrase for your poster. Say which is which, and why.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Feelings or facts? · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. Hasty generalisation If your child chose “Safe generalisation”, they treated one tasted biscuit as proof for the whole tin. If they chose “False dilemma”, they looked for two choices, which is not the problem here. Ask: how many biscuits did Ola taste, and did she check the rest?

2. A false dilemma: the list has more than two fruits If your child chose “The chart shows Sam is right”, they read the chart but not the claim. The chart lists three fruits, so “only apples or pears” forces a choice that is not real.

3. Evidence: A pupil survey: most liked the library., The report was signed and dated. · Emotional language: Imagine the lonely books in the dark., Think of the heartbroken readers. If your child put “Imagine the lonely books…” under Evidence, they have read a vivid image as a fact. Ask: could someone check this sentence against a source?

B

1. Dog food If your child chose “Bike shop”, they may have looked at the first bar only. Ask them to compare all three bars before deciding which is tallest.

C

1. Verifiable fact If your child chose “Emotional language”, they may have thought any sentence about the pond is a feeling. Ask: what could be checked, such as a date in a council record?

2. Emotional language If your child chose “Verifiable fact”, ask which number, date or named source they could check. “At risk” and “act now” are urgent feelings, not measurements.

3. Verifiable fact If your child chose “Emotional language”, ask: could you phone the council and ask when the water was tested? If yes, it is a checkable fact.

4. Emotional language If your child chose “Verifiable fact”, ask what evidence would show the pond will die forever. A word like “forever” is a feeling-driven claim, not a measurement.

D

1. Look for: A checkable fact or evidence about the juice, not just a smiling child or a feeling. If your child says the smile proves it, they have treated a feeling as proof. Ask: what fact about the juice could be checked to test the claim?

E

1. Look for: A poster with one checkable fact and one emotional phrase, each labelled correctly with a reason.

Words to use

Say“Show me one word that could be checked, and one word that makes you feel something. Which one would you trust more, and why?”

Instead of“Tell them the advert is wrong or that feelings never count.”

After the sheet

Find a leaflet or food packet at home. Ask your child to underline one checkable fact in one colour and one feeling word in another, then talk about which colour has more.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Emotion or evidence?(with a plan)
Building a Fact-Checker's Checklist(with a plan)
Noticing What We Agree With(with a plan)
Same chart, different views(with a plan)
Can We Ever Be Completely Fair?(with a plan)

Every Year 5 critical thinking worksheet

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