Say It First

Original lesson metadata

code: EMP-SCFR-L1-T1-WK9
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: 9
title: "Say It First"
aim: "Names the card she will take before she takes it, then does what she named."
blocks_this_week: 2
minutes_per_block: 20
weekly_minutes: 40
blocks: [{n: 1, title: "Before The Hand Moves", minutes: 20}, {n: 2, title: "Doing What She Named", minutes: 20}]
domains: [CL, PSED, PD, EAD]
objectives: [{domain: CL, text: "Says the name of a card before her hand moves towards it."}, {domain: PSED, text: "Takes the card she named."}, {domain: PD, text: "Completes the card she named."}, {domain: EAD, text: "Makes a sound, a mark or a built thing on at least one card this week."}]
materials: ["Things To Do cards 1 to 16", "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: "Offer two names out loud and let her repeat one of them.", older: "Ask her to name the card and say where in the room she is taking it."}
watching_for: "Whether the name comes before the hand moves."
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 9 · 2 × 20 minutes


DOMAINS: CL, PSED, PD, EAD
CODE: EMP-SCFR-L1-T1-WK9
DAY & DATE:

Objectives

CL Says the name of a card before her hand moves towards it.
PSED Takes the card she named.
PD Completes the card she named.
EAD Makes a sound, a mark or a built thing on at least one card this week.

Before the mat goes down

Naming before taking is not a language exercise. It is the first time the plan exists outside her body. Until now the choice has lived in her hand. This week it lives in the air between the two of you, where it can be held on to.

You will expect her to name a card and then take it. Half of them will name one and take another, and they will not notice they have done it. Say the name she gave, hold that card out, and let her swap. Do not ask her why.

You will feel that pointing at the card while she says the name is helping. It is not. It gives her the word without the plan. Keep your hands still. If she cannot find a name, wait, and if she still cannot, say two names and let her repeat one.

Four of them will name the card they did last week rather than a card in front of them. That is a memory speaking and not a plan. Move her eyes to the mat with one word rather than with your finger, and ask again once.

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. All sixteen lie face up. She says the name of the card she will take before her hand moves.

Before The Hand Moves · 20 minutes

AIM: Says a card name while her hands are still in her lap.

Kneel at the edge of the spread with your hands on your own knees and keep them there. Ask, then close your mouth completely. If she reaches, put your palm flat on the mat between her and the cards rather than on a card, and ask once more. Take your hand away as soon as she speaks. The block ends when every child has said a name out loud before touching anything.

SAY: "Hands down. Tell me first. Which one are you taking?"

Doing What She Named · 20 minutes

AIM: Takes the card she named and not a different one.

Stay kneeling. When she takes a different card from the one she named, hold the named card up level with her eyes without saying anything and wait. Most will swap. If she does not swap, let her go with the one in her hand and say the name of the card she is actually holding as she leaves. The block ends when every child has gone with a card whose name has been said aloud.

SAY: "You said it. Now take that one. The one you said."

If you have more time

Name a card yourself and let a child fetch it from the spread. Slots into block one, five minutes.

One line home

Your child said what she was going to do before she did it. Ask her what she said.

If you are asked why: saying it first is how a plan gets out of her head and into the room.

You will know it is working when

A name comes out before a hand moves. The card she carries away is the card she named.

Notes: