Is Sharing My Full Name Online Safe? A Kindergarten Computer Science Lesson

📚 Is Sharing Your Full Name Online Safe? A Kindergarten Computer Science Lesson

This lesson helps young students understand the importance of online safety, specifically regarding sharing personal information like their full name.

🎯 Objectives

• 🧠 Define personal information.
• 🛡️ Explain why sharing personal information online can be risky.
• ✅ Identify safe and unsafe online sharing practices.

🍎 Materials

• 💻 Computer or tablet with internet access
• 🖍️ Crayons or markers
• 📄 Paper
• 🖼️ Visual aids (pictures of safe/unsafe online scenarios)

👋 Warm-up (5 mins)

Activity: “My Name”

• 🗣️ Ask each student to say their first name.
• ❓ Discuss: Is your first name something everyone can know? (Yes)
• 🤔 Ask: Should everyone know your full name and address? (No) Why not? (To stay safe!)

🧑‍🏫 Main Instruction

Part 1: What is Personal Information?

• ℹ️ Explain: Personal information is anything that tells someone who you are or where you live.
• 📝 Examples: Full name, address, phone number, school name, birthday.
• 🖼️ Show visual aids of examples (e.g., a picture of a house representing an address).

Part 2: Why is Sharing Risky?

• 🐻 Analogy: Imagine you have a favorite toy. You only let your friends play with it, not strangers, right? Sharing personal information online is similar.
• 👾 Explain: Some people online might pretend to be someone they are not. They might use your information to trick you or others.
• 🔒 Importance of Privacy: Keeping some things private helps protect you.

Part 3: Safe and Unsafe Sharing

• ✅ Safe: Sharing your first name with friends in a supervised online game.
• ❌ Unsafe: Sharing your full name, age, and school name on a public website or app.
• ❓ Activity: Show different online scenarios (pictures or short descriptions) and ask students if it's safe or unsafe to share information in that situation.

📝 Assessment

Activity: “Safe or Unsafe” Worksheet

Instructions: Provide a worksheet with different scenarios. Students color the smiley face green if it's safe to share and red if it’s unsafe.

Example Scenarios:

• 🟢 Sharing your first name in a video game with friends.
• 🔴 Sharing your home address on a social media profile.
• 🟢 Telling a trusted adult if someone online asks for your personal information.
• 🔴 Posting a picture of your school with its name on a public website.