Concept Stretchers

concept stretcher header

Develop concepts, explore meanings, enhance thinking

Our concept-stretcher section is full of ideas and activities submitted by our contributors to help make your p4c sessions richer in concepts and deeper in meaning.

We don’t want to repeat the same 'directions for use' every time we post a new activity so we have put many of the directions, together with the principles behind each kind of concept-stretching activity, in the key documents in the right-hand column. You should download and read the key documents before using the concept stretcher database. We hope it will also help you to create your own concept-stretchers.

The Concept Stretcher resources on this page are organised in a simple table. If you use the sub-menus in the left column, you will be able to filter the list according to the resource category. Sort any table in this section using the column headings.

Title Category Author Createdsort icon
"I got a right"
A story with comprehensive background notes and activities to explore the concepts of rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities. 		Stories & Storytelling, Dialogues Tim Sprod 08/02/2012
Loneliness and friendship
A brief dialogue raising ideas about friendship and loneliness 		Dialogues Jason Buckley 03/02/2012
Wondering
Two activities to stimulate young children to reflect on their wondering. 		IAPC Materials, Notes and Activities IAPC 03/02/2012
Good and Bad
Exercises with which to explore the different uses of the words "Good" and "Bad". 		Examples, IAPC Materials IAPC 03/02/2012
Knowing and Believing
An exercise and discussion plan on these two essential and connected concepts. 		Examples, IAPC Materials IAPC 03/02/2012
Fair
An exercise to explore the concept of fairness 		Examples, IAPC Materials IAPC 02/02/2012
Duties and rights
An exercise to explore the concepts 'right' and 'duty' and the connections between them 		Notes and Activities IAPC 01/02/2012
Kinds of Truth
Exercises to explore 'truth by definition', 'truth from evidence', and 'the whole truth' 		IAPC Materials, Notes and Activities IAPC 25/01/2012
Purposes
Exercises to explore the concept of 'purpose' 		IAPC Materials, Notes and Activities IAPC 25/01/2012
Changing one's mind
When do we change our minds and why? 		IAPC Materials, Opinions IAPC 24/01/2012
Unfinished Business: Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden
A open ended dialogue about faries and reality. 		Scripts and Dialogues, Dialogues Jason Buckley 08/09/2011
Unfinished Business: Sharing the Burden
A open-ended dialogue about sharing and fairness. A group of teenagers are planning hiking trip. How should they share the load? 		Scripts and Dialogues, Dialogues Jason Buckley 08/09/2011
Fruit Salad and Philosophers' Fruit Salad
A game to mix up a group and introduce philosophical questions 		Games, Opinions Jason Buckley 08/09/2011
Profit and Greed
A concept exercise Most suitable for Yr 5 upwards. 		Questions Roger Sutcliffe 08/09/2011
Fair and Ethical
Concept exercise touching on the idea of fair trade. Most suitable for Yr 5 upwards. 		Questions Roger Sutcliffe 08/09/2011
Happiness
An activity to explore the question: 'What do you need to be happy?' There are some picture cards for young children to use but you could do the activity with any age group 		Examples Jason Buckley 07/09/2011
Keeping Promises
An exercise on promises and promise-keeping that could turn into an interesting enquiry 		Concept Stretchers Sue Lyle 07/09/2011
Activities as Stimuli
Suggestions for using activities, as opposed to texts, images or objects, as stimuli for enquiries. 		Across Curricula, Notes and Activities Jason Buckley 05/06/2011
'It's just a matter of opinion'
An activity to consider a set of opinions in relations to concepts such as truth, belief, reason, and so on. 		Examples, Opinions, Notes and Activities Jason Buckley 30/03/2011
'It just happened!'
An exercise to explore the use of this term and related concepts such as cause, coincidence, chance and intention. 		Examples Steve Williams 29/03/2011
Forever
A activity to explore the concept of 'forever' with children of five and over 		Notes and Activities Steve Williams 28/03/2011
Concept Corners
An ingenious activity that can be used to explore any concept. It has a lot of flexibility. 		Notes and Activities Roger Sutcliffe 03/03/2011
Writing poems to explore 'unfairness'
A little activity to explore the concept of unfairness through having children write and discuss their own verses of poetry. Contains audio files. 		Examples, Thinking and Writing Steve Williams 09/11/2009
The limits and scope of science
Discussion plan and two exercises to explore the concept of 'science' 		Questions Rod Cunningham 08/11/2009
Shapes
Discussion plan and exercise to explore the concept of 'shape' in Mathematics. 		Questions Rod Cunningham 08/11/2009