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Year 2 critical thinking

Year 2 critical thinking runs to 36 lessons across a 36 week year, for children aged 6 to 7 in Key Stage 1. Every lesson is listed below in teaching order.

The vocabulary a child meets this year includes sort, sorting rule, group, compare, same, different, precise, observation, vague, agree, disagree, reason.

We wrote these lessons ourselves. Oak does not publish critical thinking, so the sequence, the content and the checks are all ours.

Every Year 2 critical thinking lesson

In the order they are taught. 36 lessons.

  1. Sorting Everyday Objects: Grouping by Colour, Shape, and Size
  2. Same and Different: Comparing Two Familiar Animals Carefully
  3. Describing What We See: Using Precise Words Instead of Vague Ones
  4. Agree or Disagree? Responding to Simple Statements About School Rules
  5. Asking 'How Do We Know?': Checking Whether a Claim Has Evidence
  6. True, False, or Not Sure? Sorting Statements About Familiar Topics
  7. What Is Missing? Spotting Gaps in a Simple Story or Description
  8. Drawing a Conclusion: Writing a Sentence That Explains What We Found Out
  9. Patterns in Data: Noticing What Happens More Than Once
  10. Practising Patterns: Spotting and Describing Repeats in Pictures and Numbers
  11. Giving Reasons: Explaining 'Why' Using the Word 'Because'
  12. Is It a Fact or an Opinion? Exploring the Difference With Everyday Examples
  13. Review: Observation, Sorting, Evidence, and Giving Reasons — What Have We Learned So Far?
  14. Reliable or Not Reliable? Deciding Whether a Source Can Be Trusted
  15. Comparing Two Sources: Which One Gives Better Evidence?
  16. Creating a Fact File: Writing Claims With Supporting Evidence
  17. Fair and Unfair Tests: What Makes a Comparison Fair?
  18. Spot the Unfair Test: Identifying What Was Changed in a Simple Experiment
  19. Two Sides to Every Story: Hearing Different Views on a Familiar Dilemma
  20. Practising Explanation: 'I Think… Because… So…'
  21. What Changed? Before-and-After Thinking to Spot Cause and Effect
  22. Making a Thinking Map: Drawing How Ideas Connect to Each Other
  23. Does More Always Mean Better? Investigating Simple Everyday Claims
  24. Practising Counter-Examples: Finding Exceptions to Simple Rules
  25. Whose Point of View? Understanding That Different People Notice Different Things
  26. Debating Fairly: Using Evidence and Taking Turns to Share Views
  27. Asking Better Questions: Turning Vague Wonders Into Testable Questions
  28. Evaluating Answers: Deciding How Good an Explanation Is
  29. Convincing Writing: Putting Evidence and Reasons Into a Short Persuasive Paragraph
  30. Review: Sources, Fair Tests, Point of View, and Counter-Examples — Connecting the Middle Weeks
  31. Spotting Assumptions: Noticing What We Take for Granted Without Checking
  32. Assumption Spotters: Finding the Hidden Belief
  33. Putting It All Together: Evaluating a Short News Story Using All Our Thinking Tools
  34. Should Screens Be Allowed During Lunch? Building and Defending a Position
  35. Our Thinking Toolkit: Creating a Poster That Shows Every Strategy Learned This Year
  36. Year 2 Critical Thinking Review: From Sorting and Observing to Evaluating and Arguing

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StudyDen puts the next critical thinking lesson on the screen each morning, marks what your child types and writes the record as they go. The first lesson needs no card, then it is £29.99 a month for every child in the family.

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Common questions

What does Year 2 critical thinking cover?
Year 2 critical thinking runs to 36 lessons across a 36 week year, covering sort, sorting rule, group, compare, same, different and more.
How many critical thinking lessons are in Year 2?
36 lessons, sequenced in teaching order across the school year.
How old is a child in Year 2?
Children in Year 2 are 6 to 7 years old during the school year in England and Wales.