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Lesson #33

Grades K-2

Modifications to Video: There have been several changes to the lesson plan since the video was made. This lesson plan reflects changes made as a result of suggestions from teachers who have presented the lesson during the daytime program. Please continue to send us your ideas!

"click here to view Transportation Video."

Overall Educational Objective: Students learn pedestrian and traffic safety practices.

Associated Standard and CORE Objectives:

• 7000-05     - The students will learn ways to be responsible for their own personal safety and for the safety of others at home and school.
• 7000-0501 - Describe how to cross a street safely.
• 7000-0503 - Identify people who help them maintain safety: firemen, policemen, crossing guards, teachers.
• 7010-05     - The students will begin to explain ways they can be responsible for their own personal safety and the safety of others.
• 7010-0501 - Identify safety procedures in walking to and from school.
• 7010-0503 - Discuss the role of police officers and other safety helpers.

Materials List:

• 1 - 23’ x 40’ canvas with roads and walkways painted on it
• 6 - Battery powered cars w/extra batteries, chargers, and assorted traffic signs
• 6 - Colored boxes or blocks
• 1 - Oversized picture/story booklet "When I Cross The Street".

Teacher Provides:

• 1-6 Adult Helper(s)

Lesson Activities:

1. Place traffic signs in the appropriate locations and place colored boxes on the matching colored patches. (3 on each side of the center street is suggested.)

2. Introduce and define the vocabulary word "pedestrian".

3. Discuss the ways to be safe when walking to school. Ask what drivers need to do so that pedestrians are safe.

4. Review each traffic sign, discussing what it means to both drivers and pedestrians.

5. Review how to cross the street correctly. (Look both ways. Step onto the road; look to the left again and continue across the street walking quickly. Do not run.)

6. Assign six students to be drivers. Assign six more to be delivery persons of the colored boxes or blocks. (The remaining students sit on the sidelines for now or participate in the extension activity explained below.) Explain that it will be their job to walk to the first building, where their color-coordinated box is sitting, and pick it up. Then they must deliver their "package" across the center street to the second building of the same color and return safely back to their starting point (off the canvas).

The students should practice what they have just learned about interacting as pedestrians and drivers. When all deliveries have been safely made, rotate the students (i.e. drivers sit on sidelines, delivery people become drivers, 6 new students become delivery people) until all have had an opportunity in each position.

7. Someone may act as a police officer to ticket the children who break traffic or pedestrian rules (running a stop sign, jay walking).

8. Junior Engineering staff will instruct you in how to change the car batteries. This will need to be done as soon as a car starts going slower than the others. Each battery should last about 1 1/2 hours. Please be sure to hook dead batteries up to the chargers so they will be completely charged for the next event.

Safety Precautions: Caution the children not to bump other cars, to stay in their own lanes, and not to hit objects and/or people with the cars.

Extension Activities:

This requires an additional adult (student teacher, parent volunteer, etc) and a location apart from the driving activity. A stage or far corner of the gym/cafeteria is suitable. This activity is designed to meaningfully occupy those children who are otherwise on the sidelines. It consists of a picture/story booklet presentation which reinforces the brief safety practices review presented in lesson activities items 2-5 above. The teacher who has no assistant may use this presentation for the entire class in connection with items 2-5.

1. Assemble students in the identified location.
2. Announce the picture/story booklet presentation as a story of a girl named Mary who has learned how to be safe when walking in the streets.
3. Display the booklet "When I Cross The Street". Read the story page by page while displaying each picture. If they are able, invite various students to read the text as you turn the pages.
4. Stimulate student interaction with questions, examples, and personal experiences.

References:

• Prevention v45, Apr ’93, p.26 "Streetwise Kids" This article provides tips for parents on helping their children cross streets safely.

• Better Homes and Gardens v69, Sept ’91, p.42 "Safety Tips for School-Bound Students" Safety advice for children who walk, ride bikes, take buses, or are driven to school.

• Ladies’ Home Journal v108, Mar ’91, p.122 "Watch Out! Do Your Kids Know How to Cross the Street Safely?" Gives advice on teaching children to cross the street safely

Please make your students aware that this lesson relates to the following:

Career Fields:

Science, Technical, Business

Occupations:

• Civil Engineer: Plan, design, and oversee the construction and maintenance of roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water supply and sewage systems. They may work in areas of design, research, construction, or teaching.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree

• Highway Patrolman: They maintain order in an assigned district by enforcing laws and ordinances and by protecting life and property. They will patrol a certain area, direct traffic, issue traffic citations, investigate accidents, and make arrests.

Education: More than 12 months of on-the-job training.

• Insurance Salesman: They advise clients and sell them fire, life, health, and automobile insurance. They also help plan a family’s financial protection. They may work for an insurance company or as as individual broker.

Education: More than 12 months of on-the-job training.

Review Questions:

1. Present all the traffic signs to the children and ask them what they mean.
2. Review traffic and pedestrian laws.
3. Ask why we have laws to regulate auto and pedestrian traffic.
4. Ask children to pronounce and define pedestrian.