Off The Mat

Original lesson metadata

code: EMP-SCFR-L1-T1-WK4
curriculum_id: "a_day_without_screens"
curriculum_name: "A Day Without Screens"
level_id: L1
level_name: "All ages together"
age_line: "around 2 to around 6"
term: 1
week: 4
title: "Off The Mat"
aim: "Takes one card from two laid on the mat and starts it without being asked twice."
blocks_this_week: 2
minutes_per_block: 20
weekly_minutes: 40
blocks: [{n: 1, title: "Face Up On The Mat", minutes: 20}, {n: 2, title: "Starting Without A Second Ask", minutes: 20}]
domains: [PSED, PD, CL]
objectives: [{domain: PSED, text: "Picks a card up off the mat without being handed it."}, {domain: PD, text: "Bends to the mat and stands again holding the card."}, {domain: CL, text: "Starts the task after one instruction."}]
materials: ["Things To Do cards 1 to 8", "new this week: Make A Sound, Sit With A Friend", "the things those cards name, or their minimum versions", "one dry cloth on the floor beside any card that uses water"]
space: "One mat, or one swept square of floor the size of a door, in the same place every week."
differentiation: {younger: "Kneel beside the mat and put one finger on the floor near a card rather than holding it out.", older: "Ask her to lay the two cards out at the start of the block herself."}
watching_for: "Whether she starts on the first ask or waits for a second."
resources: []
version: 1.0
date: "2026-09-04"
access: free

A DAY WITHOUT SCREENS · CHOOSING WHAT TO DO

L1 · around 2 to around 6 · TERM 1, WEEK 4 · 2 × 20 minutes


DOMAINS: PSED, PD, CL
CODE: EMP-SCFR-L1-T1-WK4
DAY & DATE:

Objectives

PSED Picks a card up off the mat without being handed it.
PD Bends to the mat and stands again holding the card.
CL Starts the task after one instruction.

Before the mat goes down

The cards go from your hand to the floor and that is the only change this week. It is a small move and it should feel like one. What it teaches is that the cards belong to the mat and not to you, which has to be true before she can ever choose without you standing there.

The difference is in her knees. Taking a card from a hand happens standing up. Taking one off the mat means going down and coming back up with it, and two of them will sit down once they are there and stay sat. Sitting is fine. Getting up again with the card is the part that needs one word from you.

The failure is the second ask. You will say go on, she will not move, you will say it again, and the second ask has just taught her the first one was optional. Say it once, wait, then turn away and put your hands to something else. She will start within ten seconds of not being watched.

How the mat always runs

One adult stays with the mat while cards are out. The children carry their cards away from the mat and come back to it, so the adult stays where the cards are and not where the children go.
Water sits in a cup or a jug and never in anything deeper than a cup. A dry cloth stays on the floor beside any card that uses water. A spill is dried before the next child crosses that floor.
Hands are washed after any card that uses water, and after sweeping.
Every card is larger than a hand. Every object a card asks for is larger than a fist. Nothing smaller comes onto the mat, whatever the card says.
If something appears on the mat or on the floor that is not on the card list, stop, move the children back one full step, touch nothing, and deal with it alone.
A child who takes no card stays on the mat. She is not handed one and she is not asked again. She is counted as present and the mat carries on around her.
A child who takes the same card every week keeps taking it. Nothing is said about it.
A card with no materials in this room is run in its minimum version, which is written on the card. The minimum version is not a lesser version.
The word screen is not said to the children in any session of this curriculum, and no child is asked what she does at home.

This week on the mat

How the card reaches her this week. Two cards lie face up on the mat. She takes one.

Face Up On The Mat · 20 minutes

AIM: Crosses to the mat and picks a card up off the floor rather than out of a hand.

Lay the two cards on the mat before anyone comes in, a hand width apart, both facing the door. Stand behind the mat rather than beside it, so the children come to the cards and not to you. Keep your hands at your sides. When one child crowds another, move a card a little further away rather than moving the child. The block ends when both cards have been picked up and put down again at least twice.

SAY: "They are on the mat now. Go and pick one up."

Starting Without A Second Ask · 20 minutes

AIM: Starts the card on the first ask, with no second invitation.

Stay behind the mat. When a child has a card and has not moved, say the line once and then turn your body a quarter turn away and start straightening cards with your hands. Do not look at her. Listen for feet. The block ends when every child holding a card is doing something with it, or has put it back.

SAY: "Go on. Now. You know this one already."

If you have more time

Move the mat to a different wall halfway through and let them find it. Slots between the two blocks, five minutes.

One line home

Your child picked her own card up off the floor today rather than being handed it. Ask her what she picked.

If you are asked why: work she reaches for herself lasts longer than work she is given.

You will know it is working when

She goes down to the mat, comes up with a card, and starts without a second word from you.

Notes: