Fifty-four inquiry-based lessons spanning nine grade levels, Kindergarten through Grade 8, and six interconnected strands. Built on the Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship framework, extended with the AI4K12 Five Big Ideas, aligned to California, CSTA, and ISTE standards, and organized under an AI governance model built on CSBA Board Policy 0441.
Each strand appears at every grade level, with a signature driving question that deepens as students mature. AI literacy is woven throughout, never siloed, and always contextualized in the strand that matters most for that skill.
Each strand is a vertical thread, an enduring question students revisit year after year from Kindergarten through Grade 8 with increasing sophistication. The AI strand is new to most districts; the other five have been taught for decades. Here, AI shows up in all six.
Click any cell to open the full lesson plan. Rows are grade levels (K-8); columns are strands. The matrix is horizontally scrollable on smaller screens.
| Grade | Media Balance & Wellbeing | Privacy, Safety & Data | Identity & Digital Footprint | Communication & Relationships | Information Literacy & AI Evaluation | AI Foundations & Ethical Creation |
|---|
Filter by grade and strand. Click a card to open the full lesson plan, including objectives, standards, procedures, differentiation, assessment, and an AI-powered adaptation tool.
This model puts the California School Boards Association's sample Board Policy 0441, Artificial Intelligence (June 2025 Policy Update Packet), into classroom practice. The curriculum uses a two-layer model. Green / Yellow / Red determines whether an AI use is permitted and what safeguards apply. Levels 0–4 tell students how much AI assistance is allowed on a specific assignment. These layers answer different questions and should always be used together.
AI literacy does not mean unrestricted AI use. Teachers and students first follow district rules for approved tools, privacy, human oversight, transparency, accessibility, and high-impact decisions. Only after a use is permitted does the teacher set the assignment-level AI expectation.
CSBA's BP 0441 commits a governing board to supporting student and staff AI use under nine principles. The Green / Yellow / Red tiers and Levels 0–4 below are this curriculum's way of turning those principles into daily classroom decisions. They are an implementation model, not part of the CSBA policy text.
AI personalizes and enhances learning and supports digital citizenship and literacy.
AI augments and supports staff rather than replacing them.
Use is ethical and transparent, weighs potential bias, and respects copyright and intellectual property.
The people who use AI remain accountable for when and how they use it.
Implementation ensures equitable access for every student and every school.
Security and privacy come first when practices change.
Staff receive ongoing training, with a focus on ethical and responsible use.
Families and the community learn the principles and the permitted and prohibited uses.
Use is evaluated regularly and policies adapt as technology evolves.
BP 0441 is a CSBA sample policy, so check the version your board actually adopted and any administrative regulation that goes with it. CSBA released BP 0441 alongside revised companion policies that shape classroom AI use: BP 0440 District Technology Plan, BP 4040 Employee Use of Technology, BP 5131.9 Academic Honesty, BP 6154 Homework and Makeup Work, BP 6162.5 Student Assessment, and BP 6163.4 Student Use of Technology. Replace "district-approved tools" throughout with your district's approved list, and adjust the Green / Yellow / Red examples to match your local rules.
The policy uses the Education Code 33328.5 definition of artificial intelligence: an engineered or machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from its input how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
This layer applies to staff and students. It is about the tool, data, purpose, decision impact, and safeguards, not merely how much AI appears in the final product.
Use an approved tool for ordinary support when confidential data is not involved and a person reviews the result.
Allowed only with educator or supervisor direction, an approved tool, and additional review, notice, or protection.
Do not proceed without formal high-risk review. Some uses remain prohibited even when technically possible.
These levels are teacher-set directions for a particular task. They do not override Green / Yellow / Red governance. A Level 3 or 4 assignment must still use an approved tool and follow all privacy, notice, and human-review rules.
Students complete the task without AI assistance. This is appropriate when the learning evidence must come directly from the student.
AI may support brainstorming, vocabulary, studying, idea organization, or planning. The final work is independently produced by the student.
AI may support selected steps. Students document important prompts, evaluate the output, and substantially revise or build on what the AI provides.
AI is an intentional part of the task or product. Process evidence, attribution, reflection, and verification are required.
Students analyze, critique, compare, evaluate, or build with AI as an object of study. The learning focus includes understanding AI itself.
Look at tool approval, student age, data sensitivity, instructional purpose, impact on people, required notice, accessibility, and whether meaningful human review is built in.
Once the use is permitted, state Level 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. Students should know the expectation before beginning the task rather than after a concern arises.
This curriculum is built to align with the California Department of Education's Learning With AI, Learning About AI guidance, the CSTA/AI4K12 Prioritized K-12 AI Learning Outcomes, and relevant California legislation. The alignment is explicit at the lesson level: every AI-strand lesson cites the specific Prioritized Outcome it supports.
AI literacy refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to how AI works (its principles, concepts, and applications) as well as its limitations, implications, and ethical considerations. As students, educators, parents, and school community members demystify AI and learn its safe use, they build understanding that supports skill development, responsible use, and the ability to identify inaccuracies.
The six foundational subtopics every student should encounter, shown for the three grade bands this curriculum serves. Coverage comes primarily through the AI Foundations strand, with each subtopic also woven into the other strands.
| Subtopic | Grades K-2 | Grades 3-5 | Grades 6-8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Human Role in Creating AI | Understand that AI is a tool created by humans to make decisions or to generate something. | Describe the roles of humans in the creation of AI. | Describe the roles that humans play (including in data curation and labeling) in creating and refining AI models. |
| Reasoning | Explain how binary choices (up/down, on/off) can be used to make decisions that lead to a specific goal by either a human or a machine. | Train a model that can make decisions based on defined criteria (e.g., a dichotomous key). | Identify the kinds of AI models (classifier, predictor, recommender) people interact with in their daily lives. |
| Data (in Machine Learning) | Explore how AI models learn from data. | Explore the relationship between the properties of training data (size, features, biases) and an AI model's output. | Describe the ways that bias can be introduced and mitigated in an AI model. |
| Building and Using AI Models | Use data to construct a model for making decisions. | Using a dataset, develop an AI model to classify inputs. | Using a dataset and a machine learning pipeline, develop an AI model, and consider the impact of the model on various users. |
| Ethical Evaluation of AI Systems | Explore how an AI system can help and harm different groups at the same time. | Investigate examples of AI, considering differences in experience by different people in different contexts. | Describe the properties, biases, and assumptions of various kinds of AI models. |
| Societal Impacts | Explore how some people use AI in their jobs and in their communities. | Explore ways in which some jobs involve the creation and/or use of AI. | Identify the intended and unintended impacts of AI on society, including government, education, entertainment, culture, careers, and national security. |
Source: CSTA & AI4K12, AI Learning Priorities for All K-12 Students, Appendix F (2025). Grades 9-12 outcomes omitted for this K-8 edition.
A 4-point rubric for training students to critically evaluate anything an AI produces. Use with any AI-generated text, image, or answer. Adapted from the CDE AI guidance.
"Is this true?"
Facts are correct and match reliable sources. No mistakes I can find.
Mostly correct, but I found a few small errors or unclear parts.
Some facts don't sound right or need checking.
A lot seems wrong, made up, or outdated.
"Does it actually answer what I asked?"
It clearly answers my question or solves my problem.
It's helpful but slightly off topic or too general.
It kind of connects, but misses big parts of my question.
Doesn't address what I asked at all.
"Is it easy to understand?"
Ideas are easy to follow and make sense.
Understandable, but a few parts are confusing.
Some sentences or ideas don't connect well.
I can't tell what it's saying.
"Does it show bias or leave things out?"
Shows multiple perspectives and feels respectful.
Generally balanced, but I notice some bias.
Seems one-sided or leaves out important views.
Clearly biased, offensive, or inaccurate about a group or idea.
A five-level assignment scale aligned to the district governance framework. First classify the AI use as Green, Yellow, or Red; then use Levels 0–4 to communicate how much AI assistance students may use on the assignment.
Complete the task without AI assistance. The learning evidence must come directly from the student.
Use AI for brainstorming, vocabulary, studying, idea organization, or planning. Final work remains independently produced.
Use AI for selected steps. Document important prompts, evaluate outputs, and substantially revise or build on the AI contribution.
AI is intentionally part of the task or product. Process evidence, attribution, reflection, and verification are required.
Analyze, critique, compare, evaluate, or build with AI as an object of study. Understanding AI is part of the learning goal.
Every lesson in this curriculum is compatible with California's existing legal framework for student AI use, data privacy, and digital citizenship. This is not a legal review. Consult district legal counsel for compliance determinations.
Establishes AI literacy as knowledge, skills, and attitudes about how AI works, its limitations, and its ethical considerations. This curriculum's six strands directly address each dimension.
Requires consideration of AI literacy in math, science, and history-social science frameworks. This curriculum's cross-disciplinary integration (especially Grades 6-8) directly supports implementation.
Establishes guardrails for AI companion chatbots interacting with minors. Grade 6 "Chatting Safely in Shared Spaces" and the Grade 8 Communication lesson's AI chatbots and friendship tie-ins prepare students to recognize required disclosures and safety protocols.
Protects student data in vendor contracts. Grade 7 "Big, Big Data" and Grade 8 "Being Aware of What You Share" build student awareness of their own data rights.
Covered throughout the Privacy, Safety & Data strand. Grade 4 "Private, Personal, Public" and Grade 7 "Big, Big Data" emphasize student rights and choices about personal data.
Mandates online safety instruction. Every K-8 Privacy, Safety & Data lesson is explicitly designed to satisfy these instructional requirements.
How the strands map to CDE focus areas. The CDE guidance emphasizes five pillars: AI literacy for students, AI literacy for educators, academic integrity and responsible use, data privacy and procurement, and curriculum standards alignment. This curriculum directly addresses pillars 1, 3, 4 (student-facing dimensions), and 5; pillar 2 is supported through the Teacher Resources and facilitator notes in each lesson. Pair it with local PD addressing the educator-literacy and procurement dimensions.
This curriculum is deeply aligned with the Common Sense Media Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum, the gold standard for K-8 digital citizenship. Because both span Kindergarten through Grade 8, every lesson here pairs with specific Common Sense lessons at the same grade.
Common Sense Media provides 157 free, research-backed, classroom-tested K-8 lessons organized across 6 topic areas. Their lessons are often shorter (15-20 min), game- and video-driven, and produced with exceptional polish. Our curriculum builds on their foundation in two ways:
Common Sense organizes lessons by topic area. We organize by strand. The two taxonomies line up almost perfectly, with one deliberate addition.
| Common Sense Topic | Our Strand | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy Habits | Digital & Media Balance | Direct 1:1 mapping. Both cover wellbeing, screen time, focus, sleep, and healthy relationships with devices. |
| Privacy & Safety | Privacy, Safety & Data | Direct 1:1 mapping. Our strand adds explicit coverage of AI training data and California-specific legal framing (SB 243, AB 1584). |
| Digital Footprint & Identity | Identity & Digital Footprint | Direct 1:1 mapping. Our strand adds explicit AI-augmented identity (deepfakes, AI-generated content about others) in Grade 8. |
| Relationships & Communication | Communication & Relationships | Direct 1:1 mapping. Our strand adds AI chatbots, AI companions, and AI-mediated relationships from Grade 6 on. |
| Cyberbullying & Online Harms | Woven across strands (primarily Communication & Identity) | We treat cyberbullying as a dimension of communication and identity rather than a separate strand. Upstander skills, deepfake response, and harm repair appear in both our Communication and Identity strands. |
| Information & Media Literacy | Information Literacy & AI Evaluation | Direct mapping, with heavy AI integration. Our strand extends Common Sense's media literacy foundation with SIFT, lateral reading, and verification of AI-generated content. |
| (not in Common Sense) | AI Foundations & Ethical Creation | New. Our sixth strand makes AI foundations a deliberate learning thread using AI4K12's Five Big Ideas (Perception, Representation & Reasoning, Learning, Natural Interaction, Societal Impact). Common Sense weaves AI literacy into their other topics; we also give it its own strand. |
Every lesson in our curriculum lists specific Common Sense Media lessons teachers can use to reinforce, swap, or combine with our lesson. Click any lesson in the Lessons section to see its tie-ins.
Important note. This curriculum is not officially endorsed by, affiliated with, or a product of Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose framework and research inform our work. If you use this curriculum, we strongly encourage you to also visit commonsense.org/education directly. Their lessons, videos, and materials are unmatched and free to educators.
This curriculum is designed to be flexible and teachable within existing K-8 schedules. Below are recommendations for cadence, assessment, professional development, and family engagement.
One 15-30 minute lesson per strand, per year. Six lessons per year per grade. Lessons can be bundled into a 2-week October focus, monthly rotations, or integrated into ELA and advisory periods.
Two annual PD sessions: (1) August kickoff introducing the year's lessons, (2) Mid-year AI-literacy deep dive. Each lesson plan is designed to be self-contained, so teachers can pick up any plan and run it with minimal prep.
Each lesson includes a family connection activity. Quarterly parent nights cover key topics (screen-time, privacy, AI, deepfakes). Multilingual handouts for every lesson.
Every lesson includes formative checks. Grade-level portfolio pieces (K, 2, 5, 8) serve as summative benchmarks. No high-stakes testing: this is a dispositions and skills curriculum, not a content-memorization one.
ISTE Standards for Students (2.0), CSTA K-12 CS Standards, AI4K12 Five Big Ideas, California Health Education Framework, CCSS ELA & Math, CASEL SEL Competencies. CIPA and AB 873 compliant.
AI and technology change fast. This curriculum is reviewed annually for the AI strand, biennially for all strands. Teacher feedback drives revisions. A living curriculum, not a frozen one.
Built with AI, for the AI era. The "Adapt This Lesson" feature on every lesson uses Teacher Hive AI to help teachers quickly generate differentiated versions: shorter, longer, more ELL support, more challenge, or any custom request. This isn't just a curriculum about AI; it's one that models responsible, teacher-led AI use.