It’s December. If you work in a school, you know exactly what that means. Teachers (and students) are trying to push through the last days before winter break (or the end of the school year for our friends in the southern hemisphere!).
Regardless of your location, this time of year can be rough for all parties. Energy is low, excitement is high, and the attention span for heavy content is… well, variable.
It’s December. It’s chaotic. Let’s name it.
I know. The last thing K–12 teachers are thinking about is teaching AI literacy. So let’s make it doable, fun, and a light-lift. Something you and your students will look forward to instead of one more thing to power through.
Enter: the 13 Days of AI Literacy Advent Calendar. Designed to help you sneak in crucial information literacy and digital citizenship skills. And if you used AI Literacy Tech-Tac-Toe, these are all brand new activities for you and your students.
What is AI Literacy from a K–12 Perspective?
AI literacy is the set of skills and understandings students need to participate in a world where AI shapes information, creativity, problem-solving, and communication.
Digital Promise describes AI literacy as knowing how AI works, how to use it responsibly, and how to think critically about its impact. It’s part of information literacy, key to media literacy, and important for digital citizenship.
AI literacy helps K–12 students:
- Recognize patterns, bias, and gaps in AI systems
- Think about how AI tools make decisions
- Understand their own role as creators and citizens
- Engage in ethical, informed use of technology
This isn’t about teaching kids to become machine-learning engineers. It’s about giving them the mental models they need to be thoughtful humans in an AI-shaped world.
Why Should You Have AI Literacy Conversations with Your K–12 Students?
Because kids are already using AI: in their media feeds, in search tools, in games, in the content they consume, and in the tools they’ll rely on long after they leave our classrooms.
When we talk openly about AI:
- Students learn to ask better questions
- They see how hallucinations, bias, and misinformation happen
- They learn creativity, ethics, and discernment
- They see themselves as active participants, not passive consumers
- They understand that AI doesn’t replace human thinking
And honestly? These conversations help teachers, too. When we model curiosity, students follow our lead.
Why 13?
You might be asking, “Why 13? Isn’t an advent calendar usually 12, 24 or 25 days?”
Teachers: you have a lot of pressure on you. I wanted to give you a random number advent calendar that puts no pressure on you to complete.
If you only get through three days, that’s a win. If you get through all 13, that’s a win. Heck, come back after winter break and keep working through the 13 activities if you don’t get through them before break.
As educators, we are nothing if not flexible. Let this be a fun way to get AI literacy in however you can.
The goal isn’t perfection or pressure. The goal is progress. The goal is giving your students hands-on experiences with AI that spark curiosity, build understanding, and create those teachable moments that stick.
And you know, 13 is a cool number. 🥚
How to Use the 13 Days of AI Literacy Advent Calendar
The concept is simple: each snowman is the key to an activity that is 5 minutes or less. Just put the advent calendar on the projector, select a snowman, and complete each activity together as a class. Instant AI literacy for your K–12 students! Use as a warm-up, brain break, or an end-of-class wind-down. There are several activities that require body movement, which makes for a great brain break or mid-class change of pace.
As you explore each activity with your students, use the following discussion prompts to have those conversations. If you don’t know all the answers (no one does!), don’t let that stop you. Use it as a teachable moment to model how to research the answers using large language models (LLMs) and internet searches!
Understanding How AI Works:
- How do you think this AI was trained? What did it need to learn?
- What is the AI noticing or paying attention to?
- What kind of data do you think the AI is using?
Exploring AI’s Capabilities and Limits:
- What did the AI do well? Where did it struggle?
- Could a human do this task? Would they do it differently?
- What surprised you about how the AI responded?
Thinking Critically About AI:
- Who decided what this AI should do? Why might they have made those choices?
- If we used this AI in a different situation, what might go wrong?
- What would happen if the AI was trained on different examples?
Connecting to Real Life:
- Where else do you encounter AI like this?
- How might this type of AI impact jobs, creativity, or communication?
- If you could design an AI tool, what would you want it to do?
Ready to Get Started with K–12 AI Literacy Activities?
Access the interactive, snowman-themed advent calendar. Each snowman reveals a different activity.
⛄️ 13 Days of AI Literacy Advent Calendar
Teacher Guide
⚠️ Spoiler alert! If you want to experience these activities fresh with your students, skip to the next section. But if you’re the type who likes to preview, prep, and have conversation starters ready to go—keep reading. Each activity is linked with a description and three discussion questions specific to that activity.
Day 1: Learn Everything
Take a picture of any object and AI generates personalized explanations of any topic using your photo as a visual metaphor.
- How does the AI use your picture to explain a completely different topic?
- Did the explanation make sense? Was the metaphor helpful or confusing?
- How might this tool help you learn about complex subjects in new ways?
Day 2: World Toon Video (W.T.V.)
Turn yourself into a cartoon character and explore how AI can stylize and transform video content in real-time.
- What features did the AI focus on to create the cartoon version?
- Did everyone’s cartoon look equally accurate? Why might some work better than others?
- What kind of training data do you think this AI used to learn cartoon styles?
Day 3: K-Pop Dance Challenge
A great way to get students moving while seeing how AI tracks body movement through pose estimation.
- How does the AI “see” your body movements? What is it tracking?
- When did the AI struggle to recognize your moves? Why?
- Where else do you think this type of pose detection AI is used?
Day 4: Odd One Out
Can you find the odd one out? This tests observation skills against AI generation.
- How did you figure out which one was AI-generated?
- What patterns does AI follow when generating images?
- Could you always tell the difference? What does that mean about AI image generation?
Day 5: Forest Listeners
A beautiful example of audio processing. Discover how AI can identify and classify sounds from nature.
- How does AI “hear” differently than we do?
- What sounds did the AI identify correctly? Which ones confused it?
- Why is it important to preserve recordings of natural sounds?
Day 6: Wayne McGregor’s AISOMA
Explore movement and dance generated through artificial intelligence in creative choreography.
- Can AI be creative? What makes something creative?
- Who is the real artist here: the AI, the programmer, or the choreographer who trained it?
- Would you describe this as “original” movement? Why or why not?
Day 7: Woolaroo
An incredible tool for language preservation. Help preserve endangered languages by seeing how AI translates everyday objects into indigenous languages.
- Why is language preservation important? How can AI help?
- What happens to languages when they aren’t spoken anymore?
- How is this use of AI different from other AI tools we’ve explored?
Day 8: Tokenizer
This is a bit more technical but fascinating. Show students how AI breaks down text into “tokens” rather than just reading words.
- Why do you think AI breaks text into tokens instead of reading whole words?
- What happens when a word gets split? Does the AI still understand it?
- How might tokenization affect how AI understands different languages?
Day 9: Blob Opera
A classroom favorite! Create your own opera with four blobs using machine learning models trained on real voices.
- How did the AI learn to make these blobs harmonize?
- Can you make the blobs sing “badly” or do they always sound good together? Why?
- What’s the difference between this and a recording of real singers?
Day 10: Sparky
Turn everyday objects into wacky inventions with Google AI, which generates visual prototypes and reveals your inventor alter ego.
- How does the AI transform your everyday objects into an invention? What did it add or change?
- Does your AI-generated invention actually make sense? Could it work in real life?
- Who is more creative here: you (for the idea) or the AI (for visualizing it)? Or is it a collaboration?
Day 11: National Gallery Mixtape
Match artworks with music to see how AI pairs visual and audio data through recommendation algorithms.
- How does AI decide which music matches which artwork?
- Do you agree with the AI’s choices? Why or why not?
- Where else do you see recommendation algorithms in your daily life?
Day 12: Doodle Guide
Sketch onto the canvas and receive real-time AI audio and visual feedback on your doodles, with tips for improvement.
- What kind of feedback did the AI give you? Was it helpful or accurate?
- How does getting feedback from AI feel different from getting feedback from a teacher or friend?
- Do you think AI can actually “see” art the way humans do? What might it miss?
Day 13: Food Mood
Create unique fusion recipes by mixing influences from two different countries’ cuisines.
- What happens when you combine two different cuisines? Does the AI create something that makes sense?
- Would you actually want to cook and eat these fusion recipes? Why or why not?
- What could go wrong if an AI is making recommendations without understanding culture or taste?
Create Your Own Advent Calendar
Want to make your own interactive calendar for your specific subject or grade level? I promise you, I made this advent calendar in about 10 minutes using Canva AI. Don’t take the little time to mean little care or attention was made. That’s just how easy “vibe coding” is with Canva AI!
If you want to design your own classroom advent calendar, choice board, or interactive activity, here’s a step-by-step guide:
Gamify Learning with Canva AI: Interactive Classroom Activities Teachers Can Create Quickly
Make December Count (Without Burning Out)
This season, give yourself permission to keep it simple. Use the 13-day advent calendar as a low-lift pathway into meaningful AI conversations.
Your students will remember these experiences. They’ll remember the K-Pop dance challenge. They’ll remember making Blob Opera sing. They’ll remember the conversations you have about how AI works and what it means for their lives.
And you? You’ll get to winter break knowing you squeezed in valuable AI literacy without sacrificing your sanity.
That’s a win for all.
