Make it with your body
Beta- Goal
- Children make the shape of a photograph with their bodies, then show the connection between two cards without speaking at all. Three of the four steps need no language, which is the point.
- Materials
- One OuiSi Photo-Card set, about two cards per child. Floor space. Nothing to write with.
- K–1
- Steps 1 and 2, then close. One card each, shapes only — about 20 min.
- Grades 2–3
- All four steps, including guessing which cards a pair is showing — the full 30 min.
1 · One card, whole room
6 minEveryone standing, arms' length apart. Hold up one card where the room can see it.
Make the main line of this picture with your body. Five seconds.
Do it yourself too, badly, and do not explain yours.
Five seconds stops the thinking. A child given thirty will try to be right, a child given five will just move.
Look around without moving. Did everybody do the same one?
Three more cards, five seconds each, no discussion between them.
They will not match, and nobody should fix that. Four rounds without a correction is what makes step two safe.
2 · Two bodies, one link
12 minPairs, two cards on the floor where both can see.
Find one thing these two cards share. Do not say it out loud — not to me, not to each other.
Now show that connection using both your bodies. Both of you have to be in it.
Hold it still for three seconds, so it is a shape and not a wriggle.
Pointing is how they agree without speaking — demonstrate it once. The no-talking rule pushes the connection out of words and into shape, which is where many children find it easier.
Two more rounds with new cards. Swap who chooses.
3 · Guess the link
8 minGroups of four. Four cards face up in the middle where everyone can see them.
One pair shows their shape. The other pair points at the two cards they think it came from.
Now say the connection out loud, and the pair who made it says whether that was the one.
A watching pair often names a link the showing pair never thought of. Call that a find rather than a miss the first time it happens, and the rest of the lesson relaxes.
Swap over and run it again.
4 · Close
4 minEverybody standing, one card held up.
Last one. Make this with your body — and make it with someone standing near you.
Ends on the whole room moving and nobody being watched. No discussion afterward.
Watch for
- Talking in step two. The silence is the design. Remind once, then wait — a pair that has to point will get there, and the shape is usually better for it.
- Performing. If children start playing to the room, drop back to everyone moving at once.
- Deciding a shape is wrong. There is none, and the lesson collapses the moment one appears. If you are about to correct a body, ask what they can see in the card instead.
- Space. Check before you start, everyone standing with arms out. Too little room turns five-second shapes into collisions.
Adapt
- Wheelchair users and limited mobility — arms, hands and head make every shape here. Say so at the start and mean it, and build the pair shapes seated so the group works at one height.
- Children who do not want to be looked at — steps 1, 2 and 4 are done by everyone at once with no audience. Sitting step three out as a guesser is full participation.
- Multilingual learners — the strongest fit in the library. Three steps need no English, and the one spoken sentence comes after the shape has already said it.
- Speech and language — the connection is shown, not stated. Pointing is a complete answer throughout.
- Sensory needs — say in advance that nobody has to touch anybody. Every pair shape works with a gap between the two children.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.
Also works as a ten-minute movement break, using step one alone with five or six cards.