Reasoning

THINK

Support Reasoning

Encourage preschoolers to explain their thinking and discuss their ideas

Young child explaining her thinking about shapes

At A Glance

Reasoning is the process of thinking through something to come to a conclusion. Preschoolers use reasoning skills when they understand cause and effect, explain why they think something happened, and when they test out ideas to see if they work. We can support children’s reasoning skills by prompting them to consider why things happen, how things work, and what will happen next.

What It Looks Like

A quick glance at ways you can support preschoolers' reasoning skills

Encourage Explanations

Prompt children to explain their thinking. Notice how this educator uses a mix of questions that encourage children to explain why they think a book is fiction instead of non-fiction.

Talk About Why

Help children develop their reasoning skills by focusing their attention on why something is the way it is, like this educator does with the concept of zero.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Prompt children describe what could happen in the future to promote reasoning, like this educator does by asking “What would happen if the sun got in her eyes?”

SUPPORTING THINKING SKILLS THROUGH BOOKS

Max and the Tag-Along Moon

Written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper, this story is about a boy who wonders about the moon following him as he travels back home.

Max and the Tag Along Moon Book page
Everybody in the Red Brick Building Book Cover

SUPPORTING THINKING SKILLS THROUGH BOOKS

Everybody in the Red Brick Building

Written by Anne Wynter and illustrated by Oge Mora, this story invites the reader to connect together a noisy chain of events that wakes a building of sleeping neighbors late one evening.

TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE

Recognizing Self-Blame

Use our guiding questions and this article from PsychCentral to discuss how and why young children may express traumatic events through self-blame.

FAMILY CONNECTION

Facilitating Reasoning Skills

This video from Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority shares strategies educators and families can use to facilitate children’s higher order thinking.

CONSIDERING EQUITY

Critical Thinking and STEM

This podcast from Teachstone promotes STEM learning in the early learning environment for girls and underrepresented groups.

Activity Cards for Preschool Classrooms

Part of the STREAMin3 curriculum, these activity cards provide simple and fun ways to support children's reasoning skills
Activity Card - If...Then Icon
think

If...Then

Challenge children to think about cause and effect using “if…then” statements.

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Activity Card - Invent It Icon
create

Invent It

Encourage children to explore simple machines and then design and build their own.

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Activity Card - Think Outside of the Box Icon
Puzzle

Think Outside the Box

Have fun exploring ways to transform a box into something new and different.

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Activity Card - Who Am I - Icon
guess

Who Am I?

Encourage children to explain their guesses after you give clues about a mysterious person or thing.

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Get Our Resource Guide

Includes questions and activities to guide your use of the videos, book suggestions, and activity cards featured for each of the Core Skills

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