Day 1 · Encounter20–40 minutes · adult present
Sound boxes and fair shares
Target: Hear three sounds in a short-vowel word and compose a set of five.
Materials: Three drawn boxes, counters or coins, letter cards, five small objects.
- Say map slowly without showing letters. Learner pushes one counter for each sound: /m/ /a/ /p/.
- Repeat with sit, lip, and mad. Ask which sound is the vowel—the voice-open sound in the middle.
- Build five objects in two different fair or unfair groups. Ask: What stays the same?
- Close with one sentence: I can hear ___ sounds in ___.
Evidence to keepSave one independently mapped word and one explained number arrangement.
Day 2 · Concrete model20–40 minutes · adult present
The vowel is the hinge
Target: Change the middle vowel and notice how one sound changes the whole word.
Materials: Letter cards m, p, s, t, a, i; counters; ruler; round pencil; two blocks.
- Build map. Replace only a with i. Read mip as a legal pretend word and explain what changed.
- Sort a and i words. Say the syllable rule simply: every spoken syllable has a vowel sound.
- Place a ruler on a pencil. Move the load, then move the push point. Adult controls the materials.
- Name the stable rule: changing distance from the pivot changes how the lift feels.
Evidence to keepPhotograph or draw the letter change and the safest lever setup.
Day 3 · Language bridge20–40 minutes · adult present
Air reaches the blood
Target: Use a simple model to explain breathing without turning the child into a clinician.
Materials: Body outline, blue and red crayons, grape-cluster sketch for air sacs.
- Trace air through nose or mouth, down the windpipe, and into branching lung tubes.
- Draw tiny air sacs like grape clusters. Name them alveoli as an optional precise word.
- Show oxygen crossing a very thin air-to-blood boundary; show carbon dioxide moving back to be breathed out.
- Reset: smell the soup gently, cool the soup slowly. Stop if dizzy or uncomfortable.
Evidence to keepLearner points to the route and explains it in their own words. Exact medical vocabulary is a bonus, not the target.
Day 4 · Twist20–40 minutes · adult present
Change one condition
Target: Make a prediction, control one variable, and compare evidence.
Materials: Day 1–3 artifacts plus one blank comparison sheet.
- Change one vowel in a known word and predict the new sound.
- Change one addend while keeping the total target at ten.
- Change only the distance from the lever pivot; do not change the load.
- Circle the prediction, result, and rule that still held.
Evidence to keepRecord whether the prediction matched and what the learner would test next.
Day 5 · Teach-back20–40 minutes · adult present
What stands in the way becomes the lesson
Target: Use Load–Fulcrum–Lever to solve and explain a fresh problem.
Materials: Three cards labeled Load, Fulcrum, Lever; favorite artifact from the week.
- Load: name the problem without blame—What is hard right now?
- Fulcrum: choose the stable rule—What fact, safety rule, or reset do we know?
- Lever: choose one controllable next move small enough to start now.
- Teach a new word, number arrangement, body model, or movement setup to the adult.
Evidence to keepMark Encounter, Developing, Secure, or Transfer based on independence and a changed-context explanation.
Safety line
All movement, medical learning, tools, outdoor observation, and emergency-role play remain adult supervised. A child learns recognition and help-seeking—not diagnosis, treatment, or unsupervised risk.