6 Thinking Hats - Teaching Children Thinking Skills

When we think of who are the ones to teach our kids to use their thinking skills in speaking ,writing or action we are always thinking it should be the children's teachers.

Teaching Thinking Skills is taught by teachers but it could be taught at home or anywhere when your child is as young as the growing years of as young as three.

The Six Thinking Hats.

We use the metaphor “Put On Your Thinking Caps” to engage a kid's thinking. The six color thinking hats are to help a child to know that thinking is a skill to be learned and practised constantly to be skillful with the thinking process.

Either in pen, speech, or sharing, the six thinking hats provide a child the very foundation for focused, constructive and productive thought.

It has been proved that feelings and emotions are essential parts of thinking. All of us despite our different ages could enjoy and have fun in learning and teaching our children or students. such skills.

When we use each color of the hats , it represents one-of-a-kind thinking. We are to use each hat for a particular mode of thinking.

Children need to understand from six very different viewpoints before deciding upon the values of an idea being it written , spoken or action taken.


One Hat At A Time.


The Red Hat - Hat Of Feelings.

Children relate or describe how, they feel about something.


The Yellow Hat - Hat Of Strengths

Children thinks and make decision what is good for something.

The Black Hat (Weaknesses).




A child could identified problems and difficulties.


Green Hat (New ideas).




A child is able to ask what is possible ?
What can this lead to?


White Hat (Information).




A child could access the truth about something



Blue Hat (Thinking).




A child considers what thinking is needed to understand or to move forward.


How to use Six Thinking Hats?

Yellow Hat and Black Hat.

Using the evaluation sequence will encourage a child to defer judgement until both the positive aspects and nagative aspects of an idea have been considered.

It is preferential to undertake Yellow Hat before Black Hat Thinking.

It can be easy to overlook worthwhile ideas after a lengthy Black Hat Thinking session.

It may be useful to follow up the evaluation sequence with some Green Hat or Red Hat Thinking.

White Hat and Black Hat.


Using the caution sequence will encourage a child to look carefully at a situation to identify potential dangers or problems.

It is important to use and consider the facts of the matter first using the White Hat , hen use the Black Hat to discover te potenial difficulties.

Some Blue Hat or Red Hat Thinking may be useful to follow up .


Blue Hat, Green Hat and Red Hat.


These are the design sequence which will encorage the child to creat new ides, new products or improvements on existing designs.