,

Thinking Beans: A Year of Classroom Philosophy Lessons

£11.99

Click here to download an extract of the lockdown project and sample session

David Birch’s new book, published by The Philosophy Man, is a playful and engaging approach. I am jealous of the fun that writer and students must have had in creating these sessions. The quirkiness and memorability of the stimuli makes them a great focus that has been an especial boom on Zoom – you can see, and in a few instances, even lick or eat the philosophy! I have used several of the sessions myself in Zoom classes with 9-12s, with teens and with adults.

As well as 40 lessons to last a whole year of philosophy sessions, there are “Bonus Beans” including a Question Invention tool and a richly imaginative homework project that was created during the (first?-sigh) coronavirus lockdown.

40 Classroom sessions suitable for upper primary or secondary

A5 perfect-bound book, 138 pages

Categories: ,

The bane of my life as a teacher has always been my struggle to use other people’s resources – but these flow so naturally, and are so obviously polished and refined by repeated use, that I find I can pick one up and use it straight away. It has immediately become my favourite resource for Philosophy for Children, not excluding my own work; the time it saves me and the enjoyment of the sessions is ample compensation for the professional jealousy! In David’s words:

This is a book to help your students experience the wild flight of thinking. Its fun hands-on lessons are filled with questions and activities designed to baffle and befuddle. Suitable for both primary and secondary students, they can be used to fill a pocket of time in your day or serve as the basis of a philosophy curriculum. The lessons are conversational and work perfectly as whole-class activities. Their metamorphic powers will turn your class of students into an intermingled thinking organism, and what happens next is entirely unpredictable. That is the joy of thinking beans: you can never be quite sure what will grow out of them.

If you are buying for colleagues, you might like to get the bundle of five copies for £50

David Birch is author of Provocations: Philosophy for Secondary school and teaches philosophy and religious studies at Highgate School. He is a specialist with The Philosophy Foundation.

Weight .311 kg
Shopping Cart

We Make Resources So You 
Don't Have To!

We support over 17,000 teachers deepen their pupils' thinking through our weekly bulletin.

You'll receive freshly-made, topical resources to use straight away with your classes.

We only use your email to send you resources. We do not and would never share your information with a third party.

Scroll to Top