Thinking skills are skills that help a child organize knowledge and use new knowledge. Organizing knowledge is a way to make sure that information can be understood. A child has to relate new knowledge to what she already knows. Thinking skills are not a substitute for teaching children to memorize certain things; these skills help children understand how to use the knowledge.
Young children's knowledge is limited but you can help them by providing information and helping them to actively search for information. It is not enough to provide facts; with thinking skills, children explore and examine the knowledge. A vital thinking skill is to categorize objects and knowledge. Kindergarten children can practice categorizing and putting objects into different groups. Putting blocks or toy dinosaurs in ascending or descending order is a way to learn to follow a certain instruction, and by allowing children to suggest different ways of arranging blocks you encourage them to think and explore the objects from different angles.
By asking open-ended questions, you help children compare similarities and identify differences. Open-ended questions invite children to use their own knowledge, feelings and understanding about a subject. These types of questions are less leading and they invite a child to explore a subject. They often start with "Why?" or "How?" Closed-ended questions often have a short or single-word answer; for example, "What color is the grass?"
Looking for patterns is an important skill. Identifying a shape in different contexts is an important thinking skill. For example, the floor is the shape of a rectangle, and apples and oranges are round. Making connections between things is a vital thinking skill that relies on the kindergarten children observing and evaluating things. Observing the clouds and drawing conclusions about the weather and the season can lead to discussion about the kind of clothes you need to go out to play.
Group discussions help children in kindergarten understand that other children can have other opinions. Often several ideas and ways of approaching or solving a problem are discussed when several children are involved in an activity. This helps a young child understand that there may be multiple solutions to a problem. This is a vital critical skill and it encourages children to look for more than one answer and later to decide which answer or solution is the best. Using storybooks is a way to provide different perspectives and to help children think about the roles of different characters in a critical way to promote the development of thinking skills.