Family letter · Year 1 AICCG AI Programme

AI in our classroom this year

Dear families,

This year your child's class is learning about artificial intelligence (AI): the kind of computer that can notice faces, hear words and learn from examples. At five and six, children learn this through play, talk and movement, with short moments on the classroom screen.

What your child will do

Find out how machines "see" with cameras and "hear" with microphones.
Discover that computers learn from examples that people give them, and that their guesses can be wrong.
Teach the class computer to tell toys from other things, then design a helper for a real person.
Learn that a fair computer needs examples from everyone, and that people must check its work.

Cameras: how we keep your child safe

We always ask first. Before the camera is used, the teacher asks the class whether it is all right. A child who says no is respected and given another job.
Pictures stay on the classroom computer. The face finder, object finder and class computer run inside the web browser. Pictures are not uploaded or sent anywhere.
What is kept. When the class teaches its computer, small example pictures of toys and objects are kept on the classroom computer until the end of the year, then deleted. Children hold up objects, so their faces do not need to be in these pictures.
Listening. In one lesson the computer turns speech into words. This sends the sound to Google, so only the teacher speaks into it.

How you can help

Each unit has a short home link card with something to try together, like finding a machine that talks. Please ask your child to tell you about the Helper Loop: Examples, Sense, Guess, Do, Check.

If you have any questions, please speak to your child's teacher.

Class teacher

Home link cards · Year 1 AICCG AI Programme

Home link cards

🏠 Unit 1: Machines that notice

Machine hunt: with a grown-up, find one normal machine and one AI machine at home, ask the two questions, and draw or photograph them.

What we are learning: Some machines notice the world and make guesses about it. They learned to do that from examples people gave them.

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🏠 Unit 2: Machines that sense

Talking machines: at home, listen to one machine that talks (a lift, a car, a speaker). Does it sound like a person? How can you tell?

What we are learning: Machines sense the world through cameras and microphones, a bit like our eyes and ears. They can only use what their senses give them.

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🏠 Unit 3: Data: clues we collect

Clue hunt: with a grown-up, find a number clue, a picture clue and a sound clue at home, and draw one to bring in for the data wall.

What we are learning: Data is clues we collect: pictures, numbers, sounds and words. Machines need lots of data to make good guesses.

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Send one card home at the start of each unit. The space is for a drawing, photo or a few words to bring back to class.

Home link cards · Year 1 AICCG AI Programme

🏠 Unit 4: Teaching our computer

Pattern spotters: find a pattern at home (a stripy shirt, tiles, a song chorus) and show it in class.

What we are learning: Computers learn by looking at lots of examples, just as we do. We can be the teachers.

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🏠 Unit 5: Design a helper

Ask a grown-up: "What is hard for you at home?" Bring back one problem.

What we are learning: People design AI to solve real problems for real people. Good design starts by asking people what they need.

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🏠 Unit 6: Fair, kind and checked

Bring a toy from home (Lesson 28), and invite your family to our AI exhibition (Lesson 29).

What we are learning: Good AI is fair to everyone, follows the promises people give it, and is always checked by people.

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Lesson 17 · Learning from examplesCCG AI Programme

Blip cards

Blip

Not a Blip

Every Blip is green with three eyes; size, spots and antennae vary. Use two Blip cards first, then all eight with the four "Not a Blip" cards. Fold the label under if you want children to decide.

Lesson 23 · Which sense does it need?CCG AI Programme

Sense charades cards

🧸Find a lost teddy

🚪Hear a knock at the door

🌧️See if it is raining

👶Hear a baby crying

🚦Spot a red light

🔔Hear the school bell

🍎Count the apples

🎵Hear which song is playing

👟Check shoes are tidy

🐕Hear a dog bark

🖍️Find the red crayon

📞Hear the phone ring

Children act the job; the class says camera (eyes) or microphone (ears). Answers: Find a lost teddy: camera; Hear a knock at the door: microphone; See if it is raining: camera; Hear a baby crying: microphone; Spot a red light: camera; Hear the school bell: microphone; Count the apples: camera; Hear which song is playing: microphone; Check shoes are tidy: camera; Hear a dog bark: microphone; Find the red crayon: camera; Hear the phone ring: microphone.

Lesson 26 · Helpers for everyoneCCG AI Programme

People and helper cards

People

🧑‍🚒Firefighter

🧑‍⚕️Doctor

🧑‍🌾Farmer

🧒A child learning to read

🧑‍🦯Someone who cannot see

Helpers

🚁DroneFlies over a fire and finds where it is hottest

🩻ScannerHelps look inside the body

🥕SorterSorts good fruit and vegetables from bad

📖Reading helperListens and helps with tricky words

🗣️Talking helperSays out loud what the camera sees

Usual pairs: firefighter and drone, doctor and scanner, farmer and sorter, child learning to read and reading helper, someone who cannot see and talking helper. Everyone challenge: find one helper that could help two different people.

Lesson 27 · Be the checkerCCG AI Programme

Checker badges

🔍CheckerI look before we decide

Print on card, cut out and attach with a safety pin or sticky tape. Year 2 uses the same badges in Lesson 26.