Black and White Thinking: Flexible Thinking Activity

Help children explore situations that aren’t always simply right or wrong.

This black and white thinking activity helps children explore the difference between seeing things in very fixed or absolute ways and being able to consider other possibilities and perspectives.

Children can sometimes see a situation as completely good or completely bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, or believe that there is only one possible answer. This resource provides an opportunity to explore those thoughts and consider whether there might be other ways of looking at the same situation.

Use the activity with an individual pupil or as part of a small-group session. Encourage children to explain why they have chosen an answer and then explore what might happen if they looked at the situation from another person’s point of view.

The activity can help pupils to:

• recognise black and white thinking
• explore the idea that situations can be more complicated than simply right or wrong
• consider different perspectives
• develop more flexible thinking
• recognise that people can see the same situation differently
• explore alternative explanations and possibilities
• develop confidence in thinking about situations in a less fixed way.

It can also provide a useful starting point for talking about words such as always, never, everyone and no one, and considering whether these statements are always true. Helping children notice these absolute ways of thinking can open up conversations about what might sit between the two extremes.

This resource can be particularly useful when working on flexible thinking, emotional wellbeing, problem-solving and understanding different perspectives.

A practical activity for helping children move away from an all-or-nothing way of looking at situations and discover that there can be lots of possibilities in between.

Download: Black and White thinking pack