# One soft pad, one useful look

## Quick preparation

Use **one broad, clean, dry, intact familiar cloth or existing soft classroom pad already approved locally**. A broad folded cloth is a possible example, not a supplied artefact. An adult prepares any broad folds before the activity; one layer is also valid. Use a clear stable low tabletop/mat with comfortable access. Preparation estimate 2–5 minutes is **unmeasured**. No purchase or special pad required. If none is available, use the complete original model below; actual try remains NOT TRIED.

Local approval checks the real item, cleanliness, allergies/sensitivities, loose fibres/filling, edges, access and permitted gentle handling. This pack is **not a safety guarantee**. Exclude damaged pads, loose filling, fragile covers, small pieces and objects requiring force. No cutting, opening, filling, tying, body/head/face contact, food, liquid, heat, standing/sitting on a pad, dropped weights or squeezing contest. Do not claim the pad is safe or comfortable for a body, a pet or a real device.

One person acts at a time. A child may make one welcomed **self-controlled gentle palm press**, let go and stop whenever they choose; an adult can do all actions at the child’s direction. No adult guides/presses the child’s body. **Nobody presses alongside a child’s tactile access.** For optional touch, the child alone explores or gently presses while everyone else keeps hands away. Adult demonstration uses a separate look; never ask a child to feel underneath someone’s pressing hand. No touch, smelling, hearing, forced voice or public performance is required.

## The useful three-stage try

1. **Before:** child chooses a useful part/property/question: whole outline, side height, crease, an edge, or what they can safely feel. Make that before condition accessible. Ask “What do you think might happen?” before the action. “Not sure” is welcome; an idea after release is not rewritten as a prior prediction.
2. **Press:** one person gently presses the chosen broad place once, only within local approval. Notice what is actually available. A hand may hide the centre; visible edges do not establish a hidden centre. Lower, spreading, similar and unclear are possible words, not required outcomes. No measurement or fixed force required.
3. **Release:** let go completely, then look or independently feel when it is safe. Name when that observation was made in ordinary words: “as the hand left,” “after our short conversation,” or “time not recorded.” No fixed wait is required. Compare only the same accessible feature if available; adjust the view, choose another feature, pause, or use an attributed report/model if needed.
4. Child compares with their prior idea and chooses keep, another useful question, an optional next look, or finish. **No required result or fixed number of repeats.** Another try only if useful and welcomed. An unchanged/unclear result is not a failed child or failed experiment.

One shared small-group before/press/release sketch or three short phrases can hold the actual observation. Teacher notes local date/item/action/access and any important difference or interruption alongside it. Add each child’s useful question, prediction, response and support **only as needed**; **no full duplicated individual logs** or new try from every child. A short annotated group row with attributed individual ideas is often sufficient for this teaching opportunity. It does not establish every child’s entire achievement standard.

## Material and comparison boundaries

Verify actual material from a reliable item/pack/maker record where available, or write **UNKNOWN**. “Cloth,” “soft pad,” “foam-like” or a drawn texture is not proof of cotton, foam chemistry, hidden filling or full composition. Describe the material/property actually encountered. A folded cloth is still the same material if its source is verified; a fold is not automatically another material. A multi-material pad may be discussed only when a real object/source verifies its different parts. **SFU03 partial**: one cloth observation does not supply full composition breadth.

Do not promise rebound, elastic behaviour, strength, comfort or a universal property of all cloth/foam/soft objects. “This edge rose after release in this try” stays local. Words such as squashable are an action-linked description of the encountered item, not a measured material rating.

If comparing tries, name meaningful differences honestly: exact item/source, fold/form, place and action, accessible feature, observation time, interruption. Use ordinary language, not a Prep requirement to recite technical fair-test vocabulary. Match conditions **only if actually checked**. Different observation times, actions or forms do not isolate material as the cause. No arbitrary evidence quota, proof burden, stopwatch or predetermined generalisation. A shared change across useful comparable observations may support a small local pattern; an AB decoration does not.

## Complete access and model route

- **Direct:** the child actually sees or safely touches the feature, with the sense/access recorded. An adult may act while the child observes directly. An adult’s action does not erase the child’s observation/authorship.
- **Director:** the child chooses question/place/stop and an adult performs the welcomed action. Record actual adult action and the child’s own available observation separately. If the child cannot access the changing feature, use **ADULT REPORT** with the adult’s exact words, then the child’s response. This is **not the child’s own visual observation**.
- **Model:** no suitable object/action/access? Read the complete original PLAN and NOTE below, describe its diagrams, or use broad secured tactile outlines/read-aloud. The child can question, predict about an unrevealed model stage and reason from the revealed fictional source. Record **FICTIONAL MODEL / actual try NOT TRIED**. The drawing/director-created artefact can be the child’s actual work without becoming enacted physical Science observation. No object/print/touch/screen required.

A large tactile before/pressed/released outline represents **the labelled source/model geometry**, not a real unseen pad’s outcome. Never fictionalise visual evidence to credit a nonvisual route. For a real optional tactile try, the child’s own safe exploration is the evidence; no simultaneous adult pressing. If observation is unclear, that is what is recorded.

## Original saved sources for practice — held cases elsewhere

**PAD-PLAN-35** · SubjectNest / NeuroForgeIO, Codex-assisted original computer-created diagram/text, 30 September 2026. Purpose: invite a possible safe locally prepared sequence. It depicts a broad folded cloth, a proposed single gentle press and an unknown after stage. **NOT TRIED**. It gives no measured scale, force, material verification, physical result, hidden filling or safety approval.

**PAD-NOTE-35** · same author/date/type. Purpose: practise comparing a prior idea with three bounded fictional source stages. Invented notebook: “Item D was a broad folded cloth; a maker label in this fictional case identifies the cloth as cotton. Before, the visible side was tall and rounded. Prior prediction: ‘That side will look the same while pressed.’ One adult gentle palm press; no slipping reported. While pressed, the visible side looked lower and wider. After the hand left, the observer looked after a short conversation: the side looked taller than while pressed but lower than before. No exact wait or force recorded.” These are **fictional reports**, not a human observer’s testimony or actual trial by this pack’s author. They do not establish all cotton/cloth properties. A safe next question is child-owned.

The [supplied-source ledger](SUPPLIED-SOURCES.md) pins actual source identities. [Exact print alternatives](print/TEXT-ALTERNATIVES.md) carry all words, diagram relations and no-print access. [Held AL/AM](ASSESSMENT.md) stay separate until first responses; do not copy their facts into daily practice.

## Optional local source and sharing

A willing adult’s actual material label or observation can be a new attributed local source, with permission and current item context. No assumed peer consent, purchased source, field trip, cultural practice, traditional knowledge, expert endorsement or real community story. If a child shares an idea with a willing adult, note what actually happened; a private rehearsal remains private rehearsal. No child names/photos/audio/uploads or mandatory home evidence. Original model drawings are not community-held knowledge. Any future such knowledge needs its actual holder’s authority and rights, outside this supplied pack.