OuiSi · Classroom culture

First week web

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Grades 1–5 Teaching 30 min Plus 2 to set out, 2 to clear Class any size Set any Use first week of school

set out 2′ Pairs, not a line 10′ Turn it into a web 10′ Two from each group 7′ Close 3′ clear 2′

Goal: A class that does not know each other yet produces something together in half an hour, and learns on day one that disagreeing about an answer is normal here.
Materials: One OuiSi Photo-Card set. About ten cards per group of four, and a clear table per group.

Grades 1–2: Pairs only. The web can wait a year — about 19 min
Grades 3–4: Pairs, then the full web — the full 30 min
Grade 5: Ban color connections from the web onward — the full 30 min

1 · Pairs, not a line

10 min

Groups of four, about ten cards each, spread face up.

Find two cards that go together. Put them side by side and say why.

Now find another pair. Keep going until you run out of cards.

Pairs first, not a chain. Pairs are easier to start and easier to abandon, which matters when nobody in the group knows each other yet.

Say this once, early, to the whole room.

There are no wrong answers in this. If two of you see it differently, you are both right.

2 · Turn it into a web

10 min

Now join your pairs up. Can a card connect to more than one other card?

You are not making a line. You are making a web — cards can have two, three, or four connections.

This is the step that makes the lesson. A line has one answer per card, a web has many, and children feel the difference immediately.

When a group claims they are finished.

Find one more connection. There is always one more.

3 · Two from each group

7 min

Each group shows two connections only. Not the whole web.

Show us two, and say who in your group spotted them.

Naming who spotted it is the quiet point of this lesson in week one. It puts a name to a contribution in front of a room of strangers.

4 · Close

3 min

Name one connection someone else found that you would not have.

Watch for

One child running the group. Common in week one, because nobody knows the norms yet. Step three fixes it directly — if every connection was spotted by the same child, the group has to find two more.
Asking whether it is right. They will, repeatedly, on day one. Answer the same way every time and it stops by day three.
Lines instead of webs. Groups default to a single row. Walk round in step two and physically move one card so it touches two others.
Children who like rules can find this shapeless. Give them a target: the card with the most connections wins the group a point.

Adapt

Multilingual learners — pairing cards needs no English at all. Step three can be done by pointing.
Anxiety — let them be the one who places cards rather than the one who speaks in step three.
New child mid-year — this works as a small-group activity for four, not just a whole class.
Wide ability range — mixed groups by design here. There is no answer key to fall behind on.

Curriculum links. Finding and stating a connection between two images · Building a branching web rather than a line · Accepting more than one valid answer · Crediting another person's contribution by name.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.

Screen-free. No codes and no devices. Works with any OuiSi Photo-Card set.
Pairs well with Morning meeting, which turns this one-off into a daily ten-minute habit.