LittleAIMaster Activity Pack

Chatbots for Elementary Students

ages 6–11, roughly grades 1–5 · 3 activities · about 20 minutes each

Print this and work through one activity at a time. Each one ends with something you can check, so you can tell whether the idea actually landed rather than guessing.

1. Be the chatbot

Ages 5–9 · about 15 minutes

You need: Index cards

Write five questions on cards and five fixed replies.
The child may only answer using a card, matching as best they can.
Now ask something with no card and see what they do.
Together, write the fallback card.

It worked if: The child can explain that the bot only knows what someone wrote on a card.

What went wrong / what surprised us:

2. Build a Scratch chatbot

Ages 7–13 · about 45 minutes

You need: A laptop and Scratch

Pick a narrow subject the child knows well — a pet, a game, a hobby.
Use ask-and-wait plus if-then blocks for five questions.
Add a fallback reply for anything unmatched.
Let someone else use it and write down every question that fell through.
Add rules for the three most common misses.

It worked if: The child can name what their bot cannot do and explain why.

What went wrong / what surprised us:

3. Rules versus generative, side by side

Ages 11–18 · about 40 minutes

You need: The Scratch bot from above and an approved generative chatbot

Ask both the same ten questions, including three deliberately odd ones.
Record where each succeeded and failed.
Note which failures were obvious and which were confident and wrong.
Write which you would trust for a factual question, and why.

It worked if: The learner can articulate that a visible failure is safer than a plausible false answer.

What went wrong / what surprised us:

A note on tools: everything recommended for ages 6–11, roughly grades 1–5 is free and runs in a browser. If a product asks you to pay before your child can finish an activity, there is almost always a free equivalent.

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LittleAIMaster

1. Be the chatbot

Ages 5–9 · about 15 minutes

You need: Index cards

Write five questions on cards and five fixed replies.

The child may only answer using a card, matching as best they can.

Now ask something with no card and see what they do.

Together, write the fallback card.

It worked if: The child can explain that the bot only knows what someone wrote on a card.

What went wrong / what surprised us:

2. Build a Scratch chatbot

Ages 7–13 · about 45 minutes

You need: A laptop and Scratch

Pick a narrow subject the child knows well — a pet, a game, a hobby.

Use ask-and-wait plus if-then blocks for five questions.

Add a fallback reply for anything unmatched.

Let someone else use it and write down every question that fell through.

Add rules for the three most common misses.

It worked if: The child can name what their bot cannot do and explain why.

What went wrong / what surprised us:

3. Rules versus generative, side by side

Ages 11–18 · about 40 minutes

You need: The Scratch bot from above and an approved generative chatbot

Ask both the same ten questions, including three deliberately odd ones.

Record where each succeeded and failed.

Note which failures were obvious and which were confident and wrong.

Write which you would trust for a factual question, and why.

It worked if: The learner can articulate that a visible failure is safer than a plausible false answer.

What went wrong / what surprised us: