Exercises to develop thinking in younger schoolchildren

Good day, dear friends! Do you remember what grades you got in school? I remember. I don't have any C grades on my certificate. But during any year of study there were threes, twos and even stakes sometimes. So I’m thinking, who is Alexandra, my daughter, like? Excellent student, hanging on the honor board! Apparently the additional exercises we do with her are bearing fruit.

Today I want to tell you about them. Share your experience, so to speak. For preschoolers, these exercises will be a little difficult. And for elementary school students, just right. So, allow me to present to you, not simple, but “golden” exercises for developing thinking in primary schoolchildren.

Exercise 1. Connecting the unconnected

A very interesting exercise! Useful not only for children, but also for adults. This exercise is used as a test during castings for radio presenters. Imagine, you come to a casting, and they say to you: “Come on, my friend, connect us a chicken with a pole.” In all seriousness, that's what they say!

This is precisely the point: you need to combine two completely unrelated concepts. Radio presenters need this in order to quickly and beautifully compose summaries to songs during live broadcasts, for easy transitions from one topic to another.

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Systems thinking skill

The world is becoming complex. Linear logic is becoming less and less applicable. Learn to look for cause-and-effect relationships. Everything is interconnected.

Creative thinking skill

Old solutions are working less and less. Don't be afraid of new things. Look at old situations with new eyes. Let the old fear you and your arrogance.

Reflective Thinking Skill

Before you react to something, agree, or refuse, ask yourself the question: for what purpose am I doing this? What will I get/not get? What is the best outcome for me in this situation?

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Exercise 2. Word breakers

If in the previous exercise we connected, then in this exercise we will break one long word into many short ones, consisting of letters of a large word. According to the rules, if a letter appears once in a long word, then it cannot be repeated twice in short words.

For example, the word "switch" is broken down into:

spruce;
varnish;
Luke;
tulle;
shaft;
key;
beak.

I don't see any more options, what about you?

You can break up any long words, for example, “holiday”, “picture”, “towel”, “polar explorer”.

Exercise 3. Puzzles

Solving puzzles helps you think outside the box and creatively. Teaches the child to analyze.

Puzzles may contain images, letters, numbers, commas, fractions, placed in very different orders. Let's try to solve some simple puzzles together.

On the first one we see the syllable “BA” and “barrel”. Let's connect: BA + Barrel = Butterfly.
On the second, the principle is the same: Ram + KA = Steering wheel.
The third one is more difficult. A cancer is drawn, and next to it is “a = y”. This means that in the word cancer, the letter “a” needs to be replaced with the letter “u”, we get “hand”. To this we add one more “a”: hand + a = hand.
The fourth rebus with a comma. Since the first letter is “A”, the guess word begins with it. Next we see “fist”, after the picture there is a comma, which means you need to subtract the last letter from the word “fist”. Let's get "kula". Now let's put it all together: A + kula = shark.
The fifth rebus is difficult only at first glance. You need to remove the letter “i” from the word “saw”, and read the word “cat” backwards. As a result, we get: pla + tok = scarf.
The sixth, completely letter puzzle. Everything is clear with the first and last letters, but what about the middle? We see the letter “o” drawn in the letter “t”, so let’s say “in t o”. We connect: A + WTO + P = AUTHOR.

Have you practiced? Now try to solve the puzzle yourself.

You can share your answers in the comments. You will find all sorts of puzzles in children's magazines and books.

Exercise 4. Anagrams

Can an orange be turned into a spaniel and vice versa? "Easily!" - anagram lovers will answer. You don't even need a magic wand.

An anagram is a literary device that consists of rearranging the letters or sounds of a certain word (or phrase), resulting in another word or phrase.

Just as easily, a dream turns into a nose, a cat into a current, and a linden tree into a saw.

Well, shall we try? Let's do this:

the “coach” flew off to the stars;
the “word” grew on the head;
“lace” learned to fly;
"atlas" became edible;
the “pump” settled in the forest;
the “mote” became transparent;
the “roller” was placed on the table before dinner;
“Bun” learned to swim;
the “daisy” was spinning around the lantern on summer evenings;
The “park” could not survive without water.

How to develop thinking?

In order to develop your thinking, you need to systematically work through each of the components listed above, improving in such areas as:

critical thinking (the ability to analyze a situation, breaking it down into individual facts, comparing and contrasting them, determining their plausibility and reliability);
ability to synthesize (the ability to combine a large number of facts into one complex entity, object or process);
the ability to compare events and facts, finding significant differences and similarities;
ability to classify (an important skill necessary for remembering new information);
abstraction (highlighting key characteristics and discarding irrelevant ones);
the ability to generalize (collect disparate objects into groups, combining them according to common characteristics);
the ability to specify (concentrate attention on a specific image).

By developing in all of these directions, you can significantly improve the quality of tactical and strategic thinking, which will allow you to better plan your actions on the way to your goal in the future. There are a wide variety of exercises for this. We will look at 10 of them, which do not require special skills or special tools - just your desire and determination.

Exercise 5. Logic problems

The more logic puzzles you solve, the stronger your thinking becomes. It’s not for nothing that they say that mathematics is gymnastics for the mind. Indeed, when solving some of them, you can really feel your brain moving.

Let's start with the simpler ones:

Kolya and Vasya were solving problems. One boy solved at the blackboard, and the other at his desk. Where did Vasya solve problems if Kolya didn’t solve them at the blackboard?
Three old grandmothers live in the same entrance, on the third, fifth and seventh floors. Who lives on what floor, if grandmother Nina lives above grandmother Valya, and grandmother Galya lives below grandmother Valya?
Yura, Igor, Pasha and Artem finished in the top four at the running competition. Who took what place? It is known that Yura came running neither first nor fourth, Igor ran after the winner, and Pasha was not last.

And Sashulya brought the next three problems from the Mathematical Olympiad. These are problems for third grade.

“The gardener planted 8 seedlings. All but four of them grew into pear trees. All but two pear trees bear pears. Pears from all fruiting pear trees, except one, are tasteless. How many pear trees have tasty pears?”

“Vasya, Petya, Vanya wear ties of only one color: green, yellow and blue. Vasya said: “Petya doesn’t like yellow.” Petya said: “Vanya wears a blue tie.” Vanya said: “You are both deceiving.” Who prefers what color, if Vanya never lies?”

Now attention! A task of increased difficulty! “To the backfill,” as they say. I couldn't solve it. I suffered for a long time, and then I looked at the answers. She is also from the Olympics.

“The traveler needs to cross the desert. The transition lasts six days. The traveler and the porter who will accompany him can take with them a supply of water and food for one person for four days each. How many porters will the traveler need to realize his plan? Enter the smallest number."

If you still fall asleep on any problem, then contact me, I’ll help)

How to identify poor development

The level of development of people of the same age may differ. Some people tend to analyze and think deeply, while others think superficially.

Signs of underdevelopment in an adult:

Difficulties in completing tasks at work when colleagues cope without difficulty;
It is difficult to formulate thoughts, construct speech correctly, frequent use of filler words;
Mistakes are often made when writing words and sentences;
Tension and migraines during decision making;
Inability to logically distribute your tasks. It's hard to plan a route for the day;
It is difficult to understand the meaning of what is read or said.

It's hard for a girl to think

The student is underdeveloped if:

He doesn't read well;
He cannot retell the meaning of what he read or heard;
His speech is unrelated in meaning, he cannot formulate a thought;
He has a bad memory;
He can’t count, doesn’t know simple things: colors, names of objects.

Note! The child may have speech defects that are not related to mental development. Only a speech therapist can identify speech abnormalities, give recommendations and determine treatment methods.

Well-developed thinking is necessary for both a programmer and a private entrepreneur. A schoolchild and student will not be able to succeed in their studies without the ability to reason, draw conclusions and absorb information. Regardless of age, position and social status, your brain needs to be regularly trained and fully developed.

Exercise 6. Match puzzles

Matches are not a toy for children! A means for training thinking. For safety reasons, I suggest replacing matches with counting sticks.

These simple little sticks make very complex puzzles.

First, let's warm up:

Exercise 7. Truth and lies

Now let's work as Sherlock Holmes! We will seek the truth and discover lies.

Show your child two pictures, on one of which depict a square and a triangle, and on the other a circle and a polygon.

And now offer cards with the following statements:

some figures on the card are triangles;
there are no triangles on the card;
there are circles on the card;
some figures on the card are squares;
all the figures on the card are triangles;
there are no polygons on the card;
There is not a single rectangle on the card.

The task is to determine whether these statements are false or true for each picture with shapes.

A similar exercise can be carried out not only with geometric shapes, but also with images of animals. For example, put a cat, a fox and a squirrel in the picture.

Statements can be as follows:

all these animals are predators;
there are pets in the picture;
all the animals in the picture can climb trees;
all animals have fur.

You can choose pictures and sayings for them yourself.

Exercise 8. Instructions

We are surrounded by a variety of objects. We use them. Sometimes we don’t pay any attention to the instructions that come with these items. And it also happens that there are simply no instructions for some very necessary items. Let's correct this misunderstanding! We'll write the instructions ourselves.

Let's take a comb for example. Yes, yes, an ordinary comb! This is what Alexandra and I did.

So, instructions for using the comb.

A comb is a device made of plastic for making hair smooth and silky.
A comb should be used for excessive shaggy and curly hair.
To start combing, go to the comb and carefully take it in your hand.
Stand in front of the mirror, smile, bring the comb to the roots of your hair.
Now slowly move the comb down towards the ends of your hair.
If there are obstacles in the form of knots on the way of the comb, then run the comb over them several times with gentle pressure, while you may cry out slightly.
Each strand of hair must be processed with a comb.
Combing can be considered complete when the comb does not encounter a single knot on its way.
After finishing combing, you need to rinse the comb with water and place it in a specially designated place.
If a tooth of a comb breaks off, you need to throw it in the trash.
If all the teeth of the comb have broken off, send it after the tooth.

Try writing instructions for a saucepan, or slippers, or a glasses case. It will be interesting!

Tools for developing thinking

Mental processes are the basic basis of the human psyche. Three types of mental processes - cognitive, emotional and volitional - together form human mental activity.

Cognizing and transforming the world, a person reveals stable, natural connections between phenomena. Regularities, internal connections of phenomena are reflected in our consciousness indirectly - in the external signs of phenomena, a person recognizes signs of internal, stable relationships. Whether we determine, looking out the window from the wet asphalt, whether it was raining, or establish the laws of movement of heavenly bodies - in all these cases we reflect the world in a generalized and indirect way - by comparing facts, making conclusions, identifying patterns in various groups of phenomena. Man, without seeing elementary particles, learned their properties and, without having visited Mars, learned a lot about it.

Noticing connections between phenomena, establishing the universal nature of these connections, a person actively masters the world, rationally organizes his interaction with it, he carries out mental activity - a generalized orientation in the world.

Thinking forms the structure of individual consciousness, the individual’s classification and evaluation standards, his generalized assessments, and his characteristic interpretation of phenomena.

The purpose of the work is to study the means of developing thinking.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

study thinking as a process;
identify types of thinking;
characterize thinking and imagination;
consider the formation and development of thinking (psychological theories).

The test consists of an introduction, four paragraphs, a conclusion and a list of references.

The process of cognition at the level of thinking, the process of correlating objects, images, concepts and symbols can be developed and well understood due to the fact that the objects with which operations are performed are already presented to consciousness. The process of thinking is sometimes unfolded in time so that it cannot go unnoticed, and finally, it is often subjectively experienced precisely as action, activity, work, sometimes hard, tiring, sometimes painful, but at the same time bringing incomparable satisfaction and delight when it results in understanding or a solution to a problem.1

Thinking as a mental apparatus of adaptation comes into play when, in the process of adaptation, a blockage of habitual adaptive action occurs. The process of overcoming an obstacle in this case in its most general form will have several stages:

confusion;
appeal to memory images and concepts;
manipulation of images and concepts;
overcoming an obstacle.

In order for thinking to “work”, a problem situation must arise. However, this is not enough for thinking to arise, since some problematic situations can be resolved without its involvement, by trial and error. The specific object for thinking is not the problem situation itself, but the task that is formulated on its basis.

A task is a specific object of thinking regardless of the areas of human knowledge - it can be the physical world, social life, interpersonal relationships, the person himself, including his thinking process.

The task can be formulated by the person himself in the course of his practical activities, or it can be given to him in finished form by other people.2

All tasks have one common objective structure and characteristics. The general structure of a task includes conditions and a requirement. Conditions are understood as all factors related to resolving a problem situation. One of the important characteristics of a task is its complexity. The emergence of a problem situation and the structural components of a task can be illustrated using a simple life example.

Suppose you return home after a whole day of wandering through the forest with a basket full of mushrooms. You walk through the forest, step over ditches, make your way through bushes, go around trees and suddenly come to a river in a place unexpected for you (a problem situation arises). Having looked around the area, you set yourself the task of getting to the other side. In accordance with the task, you study its conditions. You know that this river cannot be forded (condition). A fish is splashing in the water (not related to the conditions). An airplane is flying in the distance (not related to the conditions). The river flow is slow, there is no wind (conditions). You cannot swim across a river with a full basket (condition). You know that in order to get home before dark and not get lost, you definitely need to move to the other side (requirement).

Thinking is divided into types depending on the means used, the nature of the problems being solved, the degree of deployment and awareness of the operations performed, the goals pursued and the quality of the result obtained.

Theoretical and practical thinking.

Theoretical thinking is aimed at understanding the most general laws and rules. It operates with the most general categories and concepts. All kinds of scientific concepts, theories, methodological foundations of science are the product of this type of thinking. Theoretical thinking is the basis of scientific creativity.

The main task of practical thinking is the preparation of physical transformations of reality, that is, setting a goal, creating a plan, project, scheme of actions and transformations. Its ability lies in the fact that it is often deployed in conditions of time shortage, and also in the fact that in the conditions of practical activity its subject has limited capabilities for testing hypotheses. After you and your mushrooms have fallen into the river from an incorrectly designed and constructed floating device, it is pointless to make a plan for crossing the river.

Theoretical and empirical thinking differ from each other in the nature of the concepts with which thinking operates. Theoretical thinking operates with as precisely defined concepts as possible, regarding which the degree of people's agreement is quite high. Empirical thinking is thinking in intuitively and situationally determined concepts, in addition, in this case, there may be a low degree of consistency between the concepts used by different people.

Productive and reproductive thinking. Productive thinking generates new knowledge, new material or ideal results. Productive, for example, is the thinking of a scientist making a new discovery, a writer creating a new work, an artist painting a new picture. Reproductive is thinking that rediscovers already known knowledge or recreates something that was once created by someone. Reproductive thinking is typical for people who repeatedly solve typical problems. In this kind of thinking, a person follows a well-known, well-traveled path, therefore this type of thinking is also called uncreative.3

There is also a distinction between intuitive and analytical thinking. Analytical thinking is developed in time, has more or less clearly defined stages, and the thinking process itself is sufficiently conscious. Unlike analytical thinking, intuitive thinking is compressed in time, sometimes the solution to a problem is carried out at lightning speed, there are no stages, and finally, its process is realized to a minimal extent.

From the point of view of the adaptive functions of thinking, it is very important to divide it into realistic and autistic. Realistic thinking is based on real knowledge about the world, is aimed at achieving goals determined by vital needs and circumstances, it is regulated by logical laws, and its flow is consciously controlled and directed. Autistic thinking is based on arbitrary, irrational assumptions while ignoring real facts. Its main driving and guiding force is poorly realized or unconscious desires or fears. It is poorly controlled by consciousness.

Visual-effective - thinking that comes down to real, practical actions of a person in a clearly perceived situation (setting). Here, internal, mental actions are reduced to a minimum, and the task is mainly solved through external, practical actions with real material objects. This type of thinking can be observed already in young children, starting from the 6-8th month of life.

Visual-figurative thinking is thinking in which problems are solved not by manipulating real, material objects, but by means of internal actions with images of these objects.

Verbal-logical thinking is the highest type of human thinking, dealing with concepts about objects and phenomena, and not with the objects, phenomena or their images themselves. This type occurs entirely in the internal, mental plane.

By manipulating images stored in memory, that is, ideas, a person can mentally dismember them, change their proportions, move them in space, paint them in different colors, replace some elements with others... this ability to mentally transform sensory images of memory is imagination. In the imagination, the sensual and abstract nature of the reflection of reality merges, allowing a person to create new sensory images located in the internal, subjective space. Ideas obtained as a result of the activity of the imagination give a person the opportunity to visually imagine the image of the final result in the form of an object or situation. Actions will be directed towards achieving this image, and the result obtained will be checked against it. It is this feature that distinguishes the rational productive activity of man from the rational activity of animals. The resulting new images can be analyzed using discursive thinking, and on the basis of this analysis, appropriate changes can be made to them through appropriate verification. Active productive imagination is the basis of human creative activity. The practical conclusion from the above is the following: the success of any human activity is associated with the degree of clarity of the idea of the final product of this activity obtained through the imagination4.

The psychology of thinking is one of the most developed areas of psychological science. In Russian psychology, thinking is defined as a generalized mediated reflection of reality, closely related to sensory knowledge of the world and the practical activities of people. Thinking is a special form of human activity, formed in practice, when a person has a need to solve some problem. L. S. Vygotsky repeatedly emphasized the idea that mental processes arise in the joint activities of people and in their communication with each other.

Exercise 9. Making up a story

Stories can be composed in different ways, for example, based on a picture or on a given topic. By the way, this will help you learn how to write essays. And I suggest you try to compose a story based on the words that must be present in this story.

As always, an example.

The words are given: Olga Nikolaevna, poodle, sparkles, turnip, salary, gray hair, castle, flood, maple, song.

This is what Sasha did.

Olga Nikolaevna was walking down the street. She was leading her poodle Artemon on a leash; the poodle was all shiny. Yesterday he broke the lock on the cabinet, got to the box of glitter and poured it all over himself. Artemon also chewed through the pipe in the bathroom and caused a real flood. When Olga Nikolaevna came home from work and saw all this, gray hair appeared in her hair. And now they were going for turnips, because turnips calm the nerves. But turnips were expensive, costing half their salary. Before entering the store, Olga Nikolaevna tied the poodle to a maple tree and, humming a song, went inside.

Now try it yourself! Here are three sets of words:

Doctor, traffic light, headphones, lamp, mouse, magazine, frame, exam, janitor, paper clip.
First-grader, summer, hare, button, gap, fire, Velcro, shore, plane, hand.
Konstantin, jump, samovar, mirror, speed, sadness, step, ball, list, theater.

Training

The most effective way to develop thinking in a short time is to undergo training. I present to your attention the course “Development of Thinking” from Vikium.

You will learn:

make the right decisions with lightning speed;
clearly argue in disputes and convince;
construct your speech competently and logically;
count complex examples in your head with ease.

The course includes:

thinking development program;
theoretical video lectures;
practical exercises and assignments
simulators for the development of logic

This course will help:

improve and speed up thinking;
develop analytical skills;
think critically in any situation;
make unconventional decisions.

Exercise 10. Let's put things in order

We've already worked as detectives. Now I propose to work as police officers. The fact is that the words in well-known proverbs and sayings have violated the order. We will fight against order breakers. Try to arrange the words as they should be.

Food, time comes, in, appetite.
You will pull out, without, labor, from, a fish, a pond, without.
Measure, one, ah, one, seven, cut, one.
And, ride, sled, you love, carry, love.
Waiting, no, seven, for one.
A word to the cat, and it’s nice and kind.
A hundred, ah, rubles, have, no, have, friends, a hundred.
Falls, no, apple trees, far, apple, from.
Flowing, stone, not, water, lying, under.
In autumn, they count the chickens.

This was the last tenth exercise, which will also help train your memory. I also advise you to pay attention to interesting thought games.

I want to clarify. We don't do this on purpose. That is, there is no such thing that I say: “Come on, Alexandra, sit down at the table, let’s develop our thinking!” No. All this in between, if we go somewhere, we go, before bed instead of books. It’s very interesting to study, so you don’t have to force anyone.

Well, now the promised answers to the match puzzles!

Development of verbal and logical thinking

Verbal-logical thinking is called abstract, because with its help a person can make conclusions based on judgments based on individual significant details. This allows you to filter out unimportant signs and focus your attention on achieving a specific goal.

Superfluous word

It is necessary to remove the word that is inappropriate in meaning from the list:

rhombus, diameter, rectangle, handle, circle;
chicken, duck, sparrow, goose.

Three differences

At least three differences should be found between pairs of proposed objects or concepts: linden - spruce; cow - horse; fairy tale - ballad.

Words

You need to write in 3 minutes words starting with the letter z (you can take w, i, h).