Student learningfor Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12
AI Study Buddy Contract
Students sort AI uses that build learning from ones that replace it, then write a SMART goal, a personal AI contract, and an honest-use log they keep for two weeks.
All activities Student learning
Screen Time, Green Time
Children sort everyday activities, notice how their bodies and feelings respond to sitting still and to moving, and make a family balance plan, learning that screens aren't bad and choices matter.
Overview
Children hear a lot of grown-up worry about screens. This lesson gives them something more useful than worry: noticing and choosing. Children sort activity cards into Screen time, Green time (no screen), and Both, and discover that screens can help us learn, create, and connect with people we love. Then they do a short Body Check-In: sit still staring at a paper "screen," then move, and notice what changes in their eyes, bodies, and feelings. They finish by drawing a balance plan they take home to make with their family. The message is honest: screens aren't bad or good by themselves; how we use them and what else we make time for is what matters.
Objectives
- Students will sort everyday activities into screen time, green time, and both, and give a reason for one choice.
- Students will name at least two ways screens can help (learning, making, talking with family).
- Students will notice and describe one way their body or feelings change after sitting still and after moving.
- Students will draw a balance plan with one screen choice and at least two green-time choices, to finish with their family.
Materials
On paper
- Handout A: Screen or Green? sort (1 teacher set printed large, or 1 set per pair, cut apart)
- Handout B: My Body Check-In (1 per student, or 1 enlarged for the whole class)
- Handout C: Our Family Balance Plan (1 per student, sent home)
- A sheet of paper per child with a rectangle drawn on it (their pretend "screen"); crayons
- Three signs on the board or floor: SCREEN TIME (a tablet picture), GREEN TIME (a tree picture), BOTH (a tablet and a tree)
On screen
- Optional: a document camera to show the sort cards
- Optional: a short movement or dance-along video on the teacher's device, projected, as an example of screen time that gets bodies moving
Before you start
- Print Handout A. For a whole-class sort, cut the 12 items apart and put tape on the backs. For pairs, make one set per pair.
- Put the three signs up with room under each for taping cards.
- Draw a rectangle (a pretend screen) on one sheet of paper per child, or have children draw their own at the start.
- Read the family note on Handout C and add your name so families know who to contact with questions.
Step by step
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10–3 min
Hook
Thumbs up, thumbs down?
Ask: "Thumbs up if screens are good. Thumbs down if screens are bad." Children will split, and some will do both. Say: "Hmm. Lots of different thumbs! Today we're going to find out that it's not really thumbs up or thumbs down. It's about how we use screens, and what else we do too."
Facilitator noteSome children will repeat what they've heard ("screens rot your brain"). Don't correct or confirm. Just say, "Let's find out what YOU notice."
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23–11 min
Explore
Screen or green?
Read each Handout A card aloud. Children point or walk to SCREEN TIME, GREEN TIME, or BOTH, and you or a helper tape the card there. Ask about a few: "Video-calling Grandma: is that a good use of a screen?" (Yes, it helps us connect.) "Dancing along with a video: is your body still or moving?" (Moving!) When all cards are up, ask: "What are some ways screens can help us?" Name them together: learning, making things, talking to people we love, moving along.
Facilitator noteLook for children discovering the BOTH column on their own. That's the key idea: screen time and green time aren't enemies.
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311–17 min
Explore
Body Check-In
Give each child their paper "screen." Say: "Pretend this is a tablet. Hold it and look only at it. Stay very still." Time one minute in silence. Then have children fill in Row 1 of Handout B together (or show fingers): How do my eyes feel? My neck and back? My wiggles? My feelings? Next, do one minute of movement: stretch high, march in place, shake out arms. Fill in Row 2. Ask: "What changed?" Children share: "My body wanted to move." "My eyes felt better when I looked around."
Facilitator noteThere is no wrong answer. Some children feel calm after sitting still, and that's fine. The skill is noticing your own body, not reaching a set conclusion. Avoid claims about harm; stick to what children notice.
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417–21 min
Model
Stop signals
Say: "Our bodies and feelings give us signals. When might it be time for a break from a screen?" Take ideas and add your own: tired or itchy eyes, a stiff neck, feeling grumpy when it's time to stop, forgetting to eat or play, or it's almost bedtime. Then practice a kind way to stop: "One more minute, then I'll save it and take a break." Children practice saying it to a partner, and the partner answers, "Great choice!"
Facilitator noteChildren often feel upset when a screen is turned off. Normalize it: "It's hard to stop something fun. Noticing that feeling is a grown-up skill."
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521–28 min
Create
My balance plan
Children start Handout C: draw one screen choice they love that helps them learn, make, or connect, and two green-time choices. Then they draw their stop signal. Circulate and ask two or three children, "Why did you pick that screen choice? How will you know it's time for a break?" Write their words on their paper as evidence. Explain that the last box is for home: "You'll finish the plan with your family."
Facilitator noteSome children have limited access to screens or outdoor space at home. Keep choices open ("a quiet game," "drawing," "helping cook") so every child can make a real plan.
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628–30 min
Reflect
One word
In a circle, each child says one word for how they feel after moving ("happy," "awake," "wiggly"). Close by saying together: "Screens aren't bad. I choose. I notice. I balance."
Facilitator noteThis chant gives children language they can use at home when a grown-up asks them to take a break.
Paper or screen
Unplugged
The whole lesson runs with no devices: sort cards, a paper "screen," and movement. The pretend screen works because the Body Check-In is about sitting still and focusing on one small rectangle, which children can feel without a real device. For a sort in pairs, give each pair a set of cards and a copy of the three labels.
Digital
If you want to show that screens can get bodies moving, project a short dance-along or movement video from the teacher's device during the Body Check-In instead of the stretch minute, then compare: "Were you using a screen? Was your body still?" Children never need accounts. You could also take a class photo of the finished sort and share it with families through your usual school channel, with no children's faces or names.
Does it need a screen? This lesson is better unplugged: the point is for children to notice their own bodies and feelings, and a paper screen gives them the sitting-still experience without the pull of a real one. A projected movement video is optional and shows that screen time and moving can go together.
Evidence of learning
What you should be able to see or collect if it worked.
- Children place at least one card in BOTH and explain why ("you use a screen but you're dancing").
- Children name a way screens can help, such as learning, making, or talking with family, rather than calling all screens bad.
- On Handout B, children describe a change in their eyes, body, or feelings between sitting still and moving.
- Balance plans show one purposeful screen choice, two green-time choices, and a stop signal the child can name.
Adaptations
- Kindergarten
- Use two categories (Screen time, Green time) and eight cards, then introduce BOTH as a surprise with the video call and dance-along cards. Children draw only one green-time choice.
- Grade 2
- Add a "How long?" row to the balance plan: children write or draw a clock for how long their screen choice usually takes and when they'll take a break.
- Emergent bilinguals
- Use the pictures on the signs and act out each card as you read it. Accept home-language words in the Body Check-In and add them to a class word wall.
- Students with motor or sensory needs
- Offer seated movement (arm circles, head turns, squeezing a stress ball) and let children answer the check-in with faces or colors rather than words.
Standards connections
Children observe and record how their bodies feel after screen stillness versus movement, then plan a balanced mix of screen and green time.
- TEKS
- privacy, safety, and security (c)(10)TEKS sections: Technology Applications §126.5–§126.7
Reflect
- What did your body tell you after sitting still? After moving? (Student ELE 4.3: I am aware of my learning strengths and areas for improvement.)
- What is one way a screen helps you learn or talk to someone you love?
- How will you know when it's time for a break? What will you say?
What comes next
Children take Handout C home and finish the balance plan with their family, choosing together when screens help and what green-time choices the family will try this week. In a later lesson, children share one thing that went well with their plan and one thing they changed.
Pairs well with
- Digital Citizenship Breakouts (K–8)More K–2 digital citizenship practice, including balance.
