Implementation plan

Grades 3–5 Implementation Plan

Pacing, prerequisites, and extensions for the elementary band.

The activities

  • Grade 3 — Your First Digital Footprint. A new student left tracks all over the internet. Use the clues to solve four locks and clean up the trail. (TEKS §126.8)
  • Grade 3 — Be Kind Online. The class chat got a little unkind. Use the clues to solve four locks and make it a kind place again. (TEKS §126.8)
  • Grade 4 — The Permanent Record. A student thought old posts would just disappear. They didn't. Crack four locks to learn why the internet remembers. (TEKS §126.9)
  • Grade 4 — The Group Chat. A student got added to a busy class group chat. Some messages were kind. Some were not. Crack four locks to learn how to be a good friend in a group chat. (TEKS §126.9)
  • Grade 5 — Track the Trackers. Someone has been following a student across the internet — quietly, from site to site. Read the clues, solve four locks, and expose how the tracking works. (TEKS §126.10)
  • Grade 5 — What Should I Share?. A new post is ready to go online — but wait. Some of it is safe to share, and some of it should stay private. Read the clues, solve four locks, and lock down what belongs to you. (TEKS §126.10)

Pacing

  • One activity ≈ 25–40 minutes, including debrief. Younger classes may need two sittings.
  • Run one per grading period, or cluster them into a two-week digital-citizenship unit.
  • Order matches the grade sequence; each grade deepens footprint, etiquette, IP, and safety themes.

Prerequisites

  • A browser and the activity link. No accounts, installs, or logins.
  • Students should be comfortable reading short paragraphs and clicking/tapping tiles.
  • Teachers: skim the activity’s teacher launch page and the correlation guide first.

Extension & differentiation

  • Home-language pairs. Use the 🌐 picker so newcomers reason in their strongest language, then answer.
  • Author-a-clue. Students write a new clue (or a real-world example) for the skill they found hardest.
  • Reason aloud. Require a spoken/written justification before each lock check; grade the reasoning, not the click.
  • Connect to a class agreement on kindness and credit; revisit the footprint idea across the year.