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Whose Is It?

Whose it is decides what you do

Play this lessonNarrated out loud. No account, works offline.

Also available in Spanish. The app stops after two lessons a day and suggests something to do away from the screen.

What it teaches

These are the lines the lesson comes back to, and the ones a child actually remembers afterwards.

Whose is it? Then reach.

Shared means put it back.

On their desk means theirs.

The teacher's desk is not the shared pile.

Found is not yours.

How it starts

A classroom is packed with things, and sitting there they all look about the same. Pencils, scissors, a water bottle, a book, a hair tie somebody left on a chair. But they are not the same at all, and getting this wrong is how an ordinary kid ends up in trouble for something they thought was completely fine. There are three kinds. Once you can see them, this gets easy.

How the lesson goes

The three kinds

  1. The school's — shared, just use it
  2. A classmate's — ask the person
  3. The teacher's — ask the teacher

Asking a classmate

  1. Their name first
  2. "Can I borrow…" not "I'm taking…"
  3. Wait for the actual answer

If you find something

  1. Ask out loud whose it is
  2. If nobody says, hand it to the teacher
  3. Keep nothing quietly

The question at the end

You need scissors. The class ones are gone. Your neighbor has a pair on their desk. What do you do?

For the grown-up

Every lesson ends by handing the child something to do off the screen, and telling you what was taught so you can use the same words.

Try this today: Tomorrow, before you pick up one single thing at school, ask yourself the question first: whose is it?

Then: At the end of the day, tell your grown-up about one thing you asked for instead of taking.

More in Other Kids

The whole library is free

Twenty-four narrated lessons for ages 4 to 9, in English and Spanish. No account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing your child does in the app ever leaves the device — you can check that yourself with the network tab open. Open the lessons.