Logic/Critical Thinking activities for tweens

[Zydruna]

I have recently really stepped up my game in trying to make sure that my dd gets a good foundation in logic and critical thinking because I think it is sorely needed in today's world.  To that end, I have started a group/club that is meeting to do activities and puzzles, and hopefully eventually we will morph into a debate club as well.  So far we have done an "escape room" style puzzle where they had to solve various clues and codes to open various locks, a few creative problem solving activities, and some "hidden rules" games.  I am in need of more ideas and resources for coming up with activities. 

 

I know there are tons of resources out there for logic puzzles and worksheets and such, but what I am struggling to find are things that are active or that can be adapted to be active and interactive.  We are doing pen and paper stuff at home individually, but for the group I want things to be more active.  I would appreciate any resources or ideas anyone has to share that might be helpful.  So far I have had the most luck on websites that list ice breaker games and team building activities but I would love to find some other resources as well.  Those that regularly attend range in age from 8 to 11 but we have had some slightly older kids express interest as well (13-15).

 

 

[Farrar]

Not exactly the same as logical activities, but you might also try doing Instant Challenges a la Destination Imagination or Odyssey of the Mind. Students on those teams have a 5-7 minute challenge they have to "solve" at a tournament and it's always something they've never seen before. The "solution" can be creative and there are endless solutions - obviously some are better than others. I think you'd probably want the task based challenges (some are performance based). You can easily find them online by searching the terms above, but this is a set I like:

http://ohdi.org/images/final_practice_set_a.pdf

 

I think you could also just play games... Chess, Set, Laser Khet, Labyrinth, Concept... so many games use logic.

[Cecropia]

I haven't used this myself... but it looks like something that might help?

http://www.prufrock.com/One-Hour-Mysteries-P197.aspx

There are more books in this series.

[Bluegoat]

Over the yeaars, I've come to think that logic puzzles and such aren't all that useful for learniong how to think clearly and logically, nor to think critically.  Mosly, it's learning other ways of thinking about things and why they make sense to those who believe them.

[Kareni]

Would a game event work?

 

Clue is a fun game that promotes logical thinking.  (I often see the game at thrift stores; you might be able to pick up a few copies relatively inexpensively.)

 

Other good games are SET, Quarto, chess, and backgammon.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Zydruna]

Thanks for the suggestions!  Yes, we have done some game days where we just play a bunch of logic based board/card games.  The Destination Imagination challenges sound like they would be along the lines of what I am looking for.  I have also taken some on-paper logic puzzles and just made them active- for example if the puzzle was about figuring out the order of books on a shelf, we would use actual books and let them move them around to try to fulfill all of the requirements.

 

If anyone knows of any other "hidden rules" games, I'd love to find more of those.  The one I know I learned once upon a time at an orientation session and it involves passing a pair of scissors either crossed or uncrossed depending on whether your legs are crossed at the time you pass them, but of course only the leader initially knows that is the rule.  The kids really loved that and loved making up other hidden rules and trying to figure out what the rule was during the game.