A Pre-School’s Journey with Thinking Maps

Over the years, I have been fortunate to attend many professional development sessions, some of which have focused on thinking skills and how to promote or enhance them within your school. I have used many of these innovative approaches within my class, but I have found ‘Thinking Maps’ to be especially beneficial within the early years, and this strategy can be used throughout a child’s schooling. We are lifelong learners and often learn best when collaborating with others.

With this in mind, I visited other schools to get a sense of how they implemented Thinking Maps and other thinking skills into the classroom and what their effect was on teaching and learning. The school visits were informative and enlightening but I did not manage to attend any schools that had implemented thinking skills within their pre-school from Grade 0000 (2 – 3 years). I wanted therefore to share our experiences at Cornwall Hill College with you.

Why use Thinking Maps/Mind Maps in the Pre-School?

The principal of our Pre-School, Mrs Dumas Kuchling refers to these early years as the ‘magic years’ and I have to agree. This is the age when children are learning about the real world and making sense of it through asking questions, discovery, exploration, and play. If teachers foster their natural curiosity and teach children thinking skills at a young age, we can give them strategies they can use in the future.

Types of Thinking Maps

Types of Thinking Maps

The Grade 0s, with guidance from their teacher, are drawing their own circle map and recording their knowledge of the solar system

Within our pre-school, Thinking Maps are integrated age-appropriately and some are used more than others. When using them, we tell the children, today we are going to start with a tree map or a circle map; by doing this the children become accustomed to the names of the different maps and, through time, they become familiar with what they are used for.

We have used a circle map at the start of a theme to establish the class’s existing knowledge, areas of interest, and the recapping of a theme.

A bubble map has been used to describe items, while a double bubble map has been used to show the differences or similarities between animals, stories, or objects. Flow maps have been used to recall a story or sequence of events, visualise a set of instructions, or record experiments. The multi-flow map was used to show the cause-and-effect relationship.

Tree maps have been used to classify objects and the brace map to show how we can break a whole into its parts. A character in a story can be broken down into its physical characteristics. For example, If we look at the well-known story of The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson we can use a brace map to describe the Gruffalo; he has knobbly knees, a purple wart, and so on.

How to use Thinking Maps in the Pre-School

It is always important to remember that children learn differently, and young children need to experience whole-body learning. Thus, they need to be engaging with the learning material and fully i

mmersed in the process. Thinking Maps are there to enhance learning; we cannot expect our little ones to learn from just sitting and listening to their teacher.

This year at Cornwall Hill saw the introduction of our Grade 0000 learners. The first term was used as a period for them to settle in but, towards the end of the term, they were introduced to a simple circle map. All of the grades in our pre-school make use of the circle map.

Using Thinking Maps in the pre-school

It is easy to use and we often find children using it when recapping their knowledge and explaining information to their peers. During drop-off times our little ones also use it to teach their parents about what they are learning.

In Grade 000, different thinking maps are used in various ways and pupils are given the opportunity to classify real objects and create 3D thinking maps. This is a wonderful example of how they can be incorporated concretely and meet our little ones where they are.

In Grade 0, we start using words or the names of the items with pictures as this is the year in which our children begin learning the letter sounds and blending sounds to make words.

What have we learned from our journey?

The Grade 000s work together to create a tree map and classify sea creatures and farm animals

At Cornwall Hill College Pre-School we have found that Thinking Maps help children visualise their learning.

When Thinking Maps are displayed in the class, children often revisit them with their friends and these opportunities have allowed for peer teaching; the children have been seen explaining or re-enacting teaching moments with their friends.

Thinking Map activities have allowed for collaborative work, whether creating a map in 3D or drawing one on a piece of paper as part of a group.

There have, of course, been challenges.

When introducing Thinking Maps to staff members, it is important that everyone receives the correct training so that they are comfortable with implementing them.

New staff need to be upskilled when joining the team and refresher courses and reflection are imperative. Some staff will be less receptive to Thinking Maps but, with continued support and training, they will see the benefits and ease with which one can use them.