TITLE: Safety
AUTHOR: Kim-Scott Miller, Washington, D.C.
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: This has been designed for use with
students in grades 2, 3, and 4. It can also be adapted for
use in community and youth groups.
OVERVIEW: Children are accustomed to hearing parents and
teachers warn, "Don't touch that!", "Be careful!", "Watch
your step!", "Look where you're going!" But how can adults
be assured of children's safety when they are not there to
forewarn? One way is through education.
Children need to learn safety skills. They need to practice
recognizing unsafe conditions and selecting behavioral
responses that avoid the potential dangers. Helping
children acquire good judgment and good safety habits allows
them to grow in independence without jeopardizing their
welfare.
PURPOSE: Knowledge about safety is as important as
knowledge about reading, writing and arithmetic. Adults
can't alway be with children to guide and direct them.
There are going to be times when they don't have the benefit
of a caring, watchful adult at home, at school or at play.
It's imperative that children are taught some safety
fundamentals so that they can take a degree of
responsibility for their own safety and well-being.
OBJECTIVE(s):
1. To raise children's awareness of safety and help them
recognize that safety involves taking responsibility
for oneself.
2. To encourage children to take measures at home, at
school and at play to foster safety.
3. To make safety a priority at home by encouraging
parents and children to discuss safety and emergency
procedures.
4. To provide practice in anticipating potentially
dangerous situations and in identifying positive steps
to avert them.
ACTIVITIES:
Activity One
Goal: To help students recognize that their
homes can be made safer if some preventive measures are
taken.
Introduce this activity by discussing the various rooms in a
typical home: how much time is spent at home; and the
variety of activities that a family engages in at home.
Discuss the fact that many accidents occur at home but that
these can be prevented if precautions are taken and good
sense is exercised.
Follow-up: Make a classroom scrapbook. Have students
collect newspaper clippings and pictures about accidents
that have occurred in people's homes. Discuss ways in which
these accidents might have been avoided.
Activity Two
Goal: To help students acquire habits of caution
and a sense of responsibility for their own safety. To
develop the understanding that these skills contribute
to a school-safe environment.
Introduce this activity by discussing how much time is spent
going to and from school; playing on the school grounds;
learning in the school classrooms; and moving through the
school building. Discuss how a school can be a safe place
or a dangerous place depending on the actions and reactions
of its students.
Follow-up: Establish committees with one group of
children for each school area; i.e. cafeteria, auditorium,
hallways, classroom, etc. Have each committee prepare a
list of safety rules for their assigned area. Then post
these listing in appropriate place throughout the school
building.
Activity Three
Goal: To help students recognize that proper
clothing for recreational activities can foster
safety.
Introduce this activity by discussing how different seasons
and different activities call for certain kinds of clothing.
Discuss how proper clothing fosters safety and improper
clothing can cause accidents.
Follow-up: Have students generate a list of specific
kinds of clothing and accessories required for extremes in
temperature. Discuss how these items offer protection.
Examples include gloves for safe play outdoors in winter,
worn to avoid frostbite; sunhats for safe play in summer,
worn to avoid sunstroke. Then have students generate a list
of specific kinds of clothing and accessories required for
various sports. Discuss how these items help avoid
accidents. Examples include helmets for football, worn to
prevent head injuries; knee pads for roller skating, worn to
protect knees from scratches and bruises due to falls.
Prepare a classroom display of these various articles that
foster safe play.
Activity Four
Goal: To help students recognize that unsafe
conditions are not irreversible and that when
responsible and positive steps are taken, safety can be
achieved.
Introduce this activity by discussing the various types of
homes that animals build or find. Mention how the location
of an animal's home is, in part, meant to keep their young
safe from predators. Direct the discussion to the homes of
people. Talk about the ways a person's home, though meant
to be a safe and sheltering haven from the elements, can be
made unsafe by our own carelessness.
Follow-up: Practice having children make observations
and judgments about the condition of things. Give each
child four 3"x5" index cards. Ask them to write the word
"Excellent" on one of the cards. Do the same for the words
"Good," "Fair" and "Poor." Then, take a walk around the
school and its grounds. Stop at various points along the
way. Ask the children to look at the condition of various
things, such as the playground equipment, the walkway, the
bleachers, etc. At each location, have students rate the
safety conditions by holding up the card that best describes
their opinion.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. Invite a doctor, nurse or dentist to your classroom.
Ask one of these community workers to speak on the
subject of safety.
2. Arrange for a field trip to your local fire
department or police department.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org