RESTORATIVE PRACTICES ACTIVITY – Community Circles Reflection Critical Thinking

Are you looking for an engaging way to teach fact vs opinion, critical thinking, and fair decision-making while also supporting SEL and restorative practices in your classroom or counseling group? The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf is our highly engaging, story-based learning activity that transforms the familiar tale of The Three Little Pigs into a courtroom investigation where students must examine evidence, explore different perspectives, and determine what is fact, what is opinion, and what might still be missing from the story.

Through this interactive resource, students become jurors in a fictional trial and must listen carefully to testimony, identify facts and opinions, consider context and extenuating circumstances, and make thoughtful decisions. This activity supports critical thinking, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and restorative conversations, making it perfect for classrooms, school counseling groups, SEL lessons, restorative circles, and lunch bunch groups. Students will explore the idea that behavior and situations are often more complex than they first appear, helping them develop empathy, fairness, and responsible decision-making skills.

This resource is ideal for teaching:

• Fact vs Opinion
• Critical Thinking and Evidence-Based Reasoning
• Perspective Taking and Empathy
• Fairness and Justice
• Responsible Decision Making
• Restorative Practices and Conflict Resolution

What’s Included:

• Trial introduction and story setup
• Fact vs Opinion learning pages
• Opinion clue word activities
• “Because Bridge” reasoning activity to explain thinking
• Wolf and Pig testimony analysis page
• Evidence Cards for hands-on sorting activities
• Evidence Board for organizing facts and opinions
• Hidden Perspectives Cards exploring context and extenuating circumstances
• Courtroom Role Cards for interactive group learning
• Jury deliberation discussion page
• Final Verdict Certificate for students to complete
• Restorative reflection and conflict resolution discussion pages
• SEL reflection questions to encourage deeper thinking

Students will practice important thinking skills while discussing questions such as:

• What really happened in the story?
• How do facts differ from opinions?
• How can listening to both sides help us make fair decisions?
• What hidden circumstances might affect how we understand behavior?
• How can harm be repaired when conflicts occur?

Our resource combines social emotional learning, and restorative thinking to help students understand that fair decisions require careful thinking, empathy, and a willingness to listen to all sides of a story. Students won’t just learn about facts and opinions—they will also learn how to become fair thinkers, thoughtful problem-solvers, and responsible members of their community.