This workshop will explore the use of Thinking Routines as a means of nurturing confident and empathetic critical thinkers in primary school students. Through the lens of literacy, participants will explore strategies for building student understanding of the global refugee crisis, helping them to develop an empathetic understanding of the challenges faced by refugees. Participants will be introduced to a range of Thinking Routines, including See-Think-Wonder, Step Inside, and Parts-Purposes-Complexities, and will have the opportunity to explore them in a collaborative setting. Whilst this workshop will share documentation from a Year 5 literature study, participants will be able to adapt the ideas, strategies and tools to other learning areas and year levels.In this session, we will share ideas, learnings, and wonderings about our pedagogy of play through our own practice and learning from Project Zero. We will investigate ways educators can make space for play as an essential part of the learning process. Through the Cultural Forces of the Environment and Opportunities, we will explore playful learning principles, practices, and tools. Albert Einstein said, “play is the highest form of research,” based on these words, let us share our experiences of play-based learning.
