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The purpose of this lesson is to help children understand the “why” behind rules, what to do in an emergency, and how to keep themselves and others safe physically and psychologically.
This lesson contains videos, books, and activities to help children develop skills in staying safe physically and psychologically. This will be an opportunity to review classroom and school rules, provide students with tools to help in an emergency, have important conversations about who we can turn to for help when we are being hurt by someone else, and what we can do together to make our classroom a safe space for everyone.
Activity 1: (20 minutes) RULES HELP US STAY SAFE
Before reading the book Officer Buckle and Gloria, by Peggy Rathmann, or watching the read-aloud video, “Officer Buckle and Gloria” by Reading Pioneers Academy, ask the students what kinds of safety rules they can recall. Read the book and ask children to look for all the different safety rules that the dog Gloria and Officer Buckle teach the children.
After reading the book, encourage the children to recall some of the safety tips that the children learned. Discuss the different safety rules that you have in your classroom, or rules that will keep them safe. Write each child’s safety tip on a yellow star and illustrate it with a simple stick figure. Tape these to a bulletin board or poster board.
Talk about how rules always have a “why.” The “why” for our rule about running in the classroom is because running in places where there isn’t a lot of space means that we can bump into objects and hurt ourselves, or we might bump into a friend. Here are a few ideas to get your started.
What are our rules about:
Have the children each choose a rule to illustrate. Write a safety rule on the bottom of a piece of paper and have a child illustrate it (optional: you can use the classroom safety book handout). Compile all the pages together into a classroom safety book.
Activity 2: (10 minutes) STOP AND THINK
Have all the children stand at the end of a large grassy area or playspace. Select 1 child to be the safety officer. This child holds up a stop sign as a signal for all children to stop and think. Give the children a safety scenario such as “crossing the street without an adult” (see a list of rules or examples from Activity #1). The safety officer then lowers the stop sign, and if it is something that is safe, everyone moves one step forward. If it is not, the children stop, stay calm, and think. Choose 1 child to tell you the safety rule, and then everyone can advance 2 steps. Continue play until the children have reached the safety officer. Talk about how important it is to STOP and THINK. Repeat the game as time and interest allows.
Activity 3: (30 minutes) EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY
What is an emergency? Help the children understand that an emergency is anytime they are in danger and need help RIGHT NOW! We have special helpers in our community who help us stay safe, and help us in an emergency. Help the children brainstorm some ideas of what an emergency looks like (someone is bleeding or hurt badly, fire, accidents, etc.). We can help ourselves in an emergency by knowing some important information and by staying calm.
Ask the children to demonstrate what “calm” looks like for them. When we have a calm mind, we can calm our bodies. When we calm our bodies, we can calm our minds. The most important thing to do in an emergency is to stay calm. Practice going from crazy, running around and screaming to calm. Practice putting your hands on your chest and taking deep breaths to help calm ourselves down.
The next thing we need to know is how to get help. Watch this video about dialing 911. Discuss and demonstrate how to dial 911. You may use a keypad printout to help show the children how to dial 911, and allow each to practice with the keypad.
The 911 operator will ask important information when you call:
Separate, collate, and secure the pages of the Emergency Safety Booklet to create a booklet for each child. Have each child color and complete the information in their Emergency Safety Booklet.
Activity 4: (15 minutes) PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY- MOST PEOPLE
Read the book Most People by Michael Leannah or watch the read-aloud video, “Most People” by The Alphabet Book Corner. This book discusses how most people are good people. But sometimes people can hurt us, and that’s not okay.
Practice the mantra: Keep safe, keep away, keep telling.
Activity 5: (20 minutes) PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN OUR CLASSROOM
Review the Pyramid of Happiness posters. Learning happens best when we feel safe. When we feel safe, we can share our ideas without fear of anyone or anything. When we feel safe, we are comfortable to be ourselves without trying to hide anything.
Discuss with students that a Safe Zone is an area where everyone nearby is working very hard to stay safe and keep others safe. No one is breaking any rules and they’re being very helpful. This could be connected to a construction Safe Zone or the school’s Safe Zone.
Read Noni Says No, by Heather Hartt-Sussman or watch the read-aloud video, “Noni Says No” by Linda Romani. Have the children share with you some of the times when Noni wanted to say no, but she did not. Encourage the children to share a time when they had a hard time saying “NO.”
As a group, discuss the following questions:
Give each child a stuffed animal or doll and ask them to practice having a conversation with the stuffed animals using the discussion prompts above. Allow the children to share what words they used when talking to their stuffed animal. Suggest that practicing hard words might make it easier to say them out loud.
Sometimes, in our effort to keep kids safe, we eliminate all risk and may restrict them from trying new things. Talk with your class about trying new things and then introduce them to a new activity such as walking across a balance beam that has some risk, but when we think about all the ways to stay safe while doing it, we can be really proud of our efforts to learn new things.
The Big Bad Wolf In My House, by Valerie Fontaine, is a really good book for exploring the theme of domestic violence and the ways that children relate to it. It covers important themes like how children try to adapt or accommodate abusers, and the psychological toll of watching a parent experience domestic abuse. This is a great springboard for talking about staying safe and how to have hard conversations with trusted adults.
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