The new topic for the Kids Philosophy Slam has been announced: Violence or Compassion: Which has a greater impact on society?
You can find out more information about the topic on their website, including rules and guidelines. The contest is open to students in Kindergarten through 12th grade, so you really should consider giving your students the opportunity no matter what their age. Here is a great post by Joelle Trayers about how she incorporated philosophy into her lessons with Kinder and 1st graders.
You can see an example from a Kindergartener below from the 2013 contest.
Whether you choose to formally enter the contest, or just discuss the topic, it could certainly make for an interesting debate in your classroom! Here is another post I’ve done on the Teaching Children Philosophy website. Also, if you might want to check out Richard Byrne’s great review of Socratic Smackdown, a fantastic tool guaranteed to liven up any deep discussions!
Thank you for letting us know about the new topic! I can’t wait to find out the opinions of my kiddos on this one. I really enjoyed seeing what they came up with last year!