AIQ
AIQ
Part of the Privacy & AI lesson guide. Teaching a different grade? 🔧 Builder (8–10) · 💻 Hacker (11–14) · ⚡ Architect (15–18)
Gather students where they can all see you or a shared device — a rug or circle time works well. This topic needs a gentle, reassuring tone rather than a scary one: the goal is "you have secrets, and that's good, and here's how to keep them," not "the internet is dangerous."
"Everybody, do you have a secret? Maybe a surprise for someone's birthday, or your favorite hiding spot for toys? [Let a few share — nothing too personal, just the idea of a fun secret.] Secrets are things that are just for you, or just for people you trust. Did you know your PHONE can have secrets too — like where you are, and what you sound like?"
This is close to the app's own hook line for this age band, and it's fine to say a version of it aloud: "AI can learn a LOT about you from your phone! Where you go, what you say, even what you look like. Let's learn how to keep YOUR secrets safe!" Say it with a little bit of wonder and a little bit of "ooh, that's surprising," not alarm.
Do a quick physical warm-up before the activity: have every student cup their hands around their mouth like they're whispering a secret to a friend. Say, "That's how a secret should feel — just between you and someone you trust! Today we're going to learn who to trust with our information, like our name, where we live, or a picture of our face."
This age band's lesson has three scenes inside the app: What AI Knows, How Data Spreads, and Protect Yourself. Walk through the big idea of each one as a group before handing out devices.
Hold up a phone (or a picture of one) and say: "This little machine can know where you go, what your voice sounds like, and even what your face looks like! Isn't that wild? A phone's map app keeps track of everywhere it's been — hundreds of times every single day!" Then hold up a paper diary or notebook: "But THIS — a paper diary — doesn't tell anyone anything. It just sits quietly with your secrets inside, no computers, no internet, nobody reading it unless you show them."
Expected response: surprise, some students asking "does MY phone know where I am?" Answer honestly and calmly: "If a grown-up has location turned on, yes, a bit! That's why it's a grown-up's job to decide that, not something we do by ourselves."
"Some apps are free to use, but the company still wants to make money. Guess how? Sometimes they collect information about you and sell it to other companies who want to show you ads! It's like if you found a fun free toy, but it secretly told a stranger where you play."
Contrast with a postal letter: "But if I write you a real paper letter and mail it, it goes straight from me to you — no one in between reads it or sells anything about it!" This is the app's own real-world contrast (postal mail vs. tracking cookies) and it lands well as a simple "some things are private end-to-end, some things aren't" comparison.
"So how do WE keep our secrets safe? Rule number one, always: before you download a new app or type in any information, ASK A GROWN-UP FIRST. Every single time. That's the most important rule in this whole lesson."
Have the class say the rule back to you as a chant: "Ask a grown-up first!" Repeat it two or three times with growing energy — repetition is what makes a safety rule stick at this age, far more than any explanation of why.
Now hand out devices and let students tap through the three scenes at their own pace. Circulate and ask "whose job is it to decide if an app is safe?" — the answer should always come back to "a grown-up," and that's the correct answer to reinforce every time, not "me" or "nobody."
As students tap through, some may reach the smart speaker example and ask what a "smart speaker" even is — if your classroom doesn't have one, a quick description works fine: "It's a little speaker you can talk to, like 'what's the weather today?' and it answers you! To do that, it has to listen for your voice first, and it sends what it hears somewhere far away to figure out the answer." That's enough for this age band to connect the dots without needing a live demonstration.
Watch for two common reactions. Some students may get a little worried that "the phone is watching me" — reassure them gently: "Phones don't watch us the way people do. They just collect little bits of information, and it's our grown-up's job to decide what's okay to share." Others may say "I already know all my apps" — praise that, and use it to ask "did a grown-up help you pick those?"
Before moving on, add one more grounding moment with a familiar object: hold up a house key. "This key can only open OUR door. It can't open anybody else's house. That's kind of like a password — it should only work for YOU, and it should be something a grown-up helps you keep safe, not something you show off to everyone at school." This gives the class a second concrete, physical image (alongside the diary) to hang the abstract idea of "keeping something safe" on.
If a student asks "but how does the phone actually KNOW where I am?" — a simple, honest answer for this age works well: "It's a little bit like a game of tag with satellites way up in the sky! The phone talks to them, and they help it figure out roughly where it is, like a very fancy game of hide-and-seek." This isn't a full explanation of GPS, but it gives a five- to seven-year-old a picture in their head instead of "it's magic," which is the only real goal at this level.
Close the activity with a simple recap using fingers: hold up one finger for each thing a phone can learn ("one — where you go! two — what you sound like! three — what your face looks like!") and have the class copy the fingers and words back at you. This kind of physical, repeated recap is far more likely to stick with a five- to seven-year-old than a verbal summary alone.
Keep this light and reassuring. There's no wrong answer here except one that suggests a child should share personal information without checking with a trusted adult first — gently redirect any answer like that back to "always ask a grown-up," every time, without making the child feel corrected or embarrassed. The friend's-picture question is worth lingering on: it's a gentle, age-appropriate first taste of the idea that other people's information deserves the same care as your own, which becomes important again later in Builder and Hacker mode.
The quiz pops up after the three scenes, with a happy sound for a correct tap and a gentle "let's try again" for a miss — never "wrong." You don't need to run this aloud as a group, but previewing it helps you cheer along as you circulate.
If a student taps the wrong answer, match the app's tone: no "wrong," just a warm "ooh, let's think about that one again" and a nudge back toward the idea, never a correction that feels like a scolding.
Close with: "Today you learned that YOUR information is special, and it belongs to YOU! Phones and apps can learn a lot about us, so before we share anything, we always, always ask a grown-up first. That's how we keep our secrets safe."
Extension activity: Give each student a small blank booklet (a few sheets of paper folded and stapled) to decorate as their own "secret diary." Have them draw one thing on the cover that represents something that's "just theirs" — a favorite toy, a pet, a hiding spot. Explain that just like this diary keeps its pages private until they choose to share them, they get to decide (with a grown-up's help) what to share about themselves online.
If you have more time, play a quick sorting game using ideas from the lesson: call out an item — "a paper diary," "a smart speaker," "a postal letter," "a phone camera app," "a physical key," "an app asking for your location" — and have students stand up and say "ASK A GROWN-UP!" if it's something that could collect information, or sit quietly if it's something private on its own. This turns the lesson's own examples into a movement break while reinforcing the one habit that matters most at this age.
A short note for parents is worth sending home: "Today we learned that phones and apps can collect information about us, like where we go or what we look like. We practiced one big rule: always ask a grown-up before sharing anything or downloading a new app. Please keep reinforcing that rule at home!" Nothing in this lesson asks a child to type in real information, create an account, or share anything personal — it's entirely about the habit of asking first.
One more thing worth keeping in mind for this age band specifically: young children genuinely cannot yet judge which requests for information are reasonable and which aren't — that judgment develops later, which is exactly why "ask a grown-up" is taught as an absolute rule rather than a case-by-case decision at this age. Resist any temptation to teach shortcuts like "only share your first name" or "it's fine if it's just a game" — at 5-7, the simplest, most repeatable rule is the safest one, and the nuance can wait for Builder mode.