At school
A child in your class says they have a pet lion at home. They say it sleeps on their bed.
What do you think?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
On the sofa
In a cartoon, a person falls a long way and stands up laughing with no hurt at all.
Is that how falling works?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Real things happened. You could see them or somebody saw them.
Made-up things
Made-up things come out of somebody’s head. Stories. Cartoons. Dressing up.
Made up is not bad
Made-up things are fun. It is good to know which one you are looking at.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Real or Made Up?
Tap a card, then tap the basket it goes in.
Put each one in the right basket.
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
Somebody tells you a cat in their house can talk. What is a good thing to think?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Spot one of each
- Today, find one thing that really happened.
- Find one thing that was made up.
- Tell somebody how you could tell.
Why: Saying how you knew is the part that turns noticing into a skill.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Real things happened. Made-up things were invented.
- Made up is not bad. Knowing which is which is the useful part.
For the grown-up
This is the first step toward everything the Online & AI lessons do later, where made-up material is designed to look real. Starting with talking cats rather than with misinformation means the skill is already there when the stakes arrive.
Be careful not to turn this into "stories are lies". Children who learn that pretending is a fault stop pretending, and pretend play is doing a lot of developmental work at this age.
A useful family habit is naming it lightly as you go — "that bit is real, that bit is the story" — during books and films, rather than as a quiz afterwards.