OuiSi · Reset

Brain break

Beta

Grades K–5 Teaching 10 min Plus 2 to deal out — clearing is step 3 Class any size Set any Produces nothing — on purpose

set out 2′ Quiet first 4′ One thing, to one person 4′ Back to work 2′

Goal: Drop the cognitive load, get the room quiet, and hand attention back. There is no output, no sharing requirement, and nothing to hand in.
Materials: One OuiSi Photo-Card set. Three cards per child, dealt face down.

K–1: Two minutes of quiet, not four. Steps 1 and 3 only — about 5 min.
Grades 2–5: All three steps, four minutes of quiet — the full 10 min.

1 · Quiet first

4 min

Deal three cards face down to each child. Nobody turns them over until you say.

Turn them over. Pick the one you want to look at. Put the other two aside.

For the next few minutes nobody will ask you to explain your card. You can just look.

Say it and mean it. The quiet only works if they believe no question is coming. Four minutes is longer than it sounds — two is plenty for some rooms, so read yours and stop while it is still restful.

2 · One thing, to one person

4 min

Turn to whoever is nearest. No moving seats, no choosing partners.

You may tell them one thing about your card, or look for a way the two cards go together, or keep looking quietly on your own. You do not have to tell anyone anything.

Taking the audience away is what makes this restful rather than one more thing to perform.

3 · Back to work

2 min

Collect the cards yourself while they settle. No discussion, no going around the room, and no reflection question.

Cards to me. Back to it.

Ending flat is deliberate. Do not debrief it.

Watch for

The urge to make it productive. This guide produces nothing, and that is the whole design. Adding a worksheet turns a reset into another task.
Cutting the quiet short out of nerves. Four minutes feels long at the front of a room. Shorten it because you read the room, never because the silence is making you uneasy.
Using it as a reward. Then it stops being available on the days the room most needs it.
Children who like rules may want to know what it is for. Tell them straight: it is for stopping. That is a real answer.

Adapt

After a test or a hard lesson — this is the best moment for it. Run it before the next transition, not after.
Attention and ADHD — let them stand or move to the back wall with their card. Stillness is not the goal, quiet is.
Anxiety — step two can be skipped entirely. Looking alone for eight minutes is a complete version.
Autistic children — the predictability helps. Run it the same way every time and say the three steps in advance.
Multilingual learners — no language demand at all in step one, and one word is enough in step two.
Five-minute version — three minutes quiet, two with a neighbor, done. For K–1 use the ladder instead and drop step two.

Curriculum links. Sustained quiet attention to one image · Self-regulation and returning to task · Optional one-to-one talk with no performance demand · Choosing not to share, treated as a valid choice.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.

Not a lesson. There is no objective here beyond handing the room back to itself. Keep it that way and it will keep working.