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Child Safety
(For 4th and 5th grades)

General Guidelines: 1) Don't tell horror stories of accidents that can provoke terror. If students can react to dangerous situations both seriously and calmly, they're more likely to make the right decision than if they're terrified. 2) For younger children, don't do a game that results in ultimate winners and losers. Losers tend to get upset. Instead, complement each student who tries to answer,  then compliment all at the end for their attention. In this way, all come out feeling like winners. 

Materials Needed: 1) Bring one die and a small object to move around on the game board. (For example, plastic army man, person skiing, quarter, etc.) 2) Prepare the board for the game on a poster board. 3) Prepare (or just copy from below and cut out) five "Prevention" cards and stack of "Accident" cards.

Introduction

Today we want to talk about safety. If everyone is willing to get involved, I think it will be a lot more fun. 

Discussion: 1. I'll start by telling you about a couple of accidents I've had in my life. Can you give me suggestions as to how these accidents could have been avoided? 2. Could you tell me about some accidents that you or your friends and family have had, so that we can discuss what we can learn from them? 

Transition: Accidents aren't fun. Sometimes they're just embarrassing. Sometimes they hurt. Let's learn a little more about the best ways to prevent accidents and to help when they happen. We'll make it more fun by playing a game called...

Slopes and Lifts

Object: How many of you have ever gone snow skiing? How many of the rest of you have seen it on TV or in a movie? What is a ski lift? What is the slope? The object of snow skiing is to have fun while going down the slopes, hopefully without falling! The object of this game is to make it all the way to the bottom of the slope, before the time limit is up (15 minutes? 20 minutes?). 

How the Game is Played:  Have you ever played the board game "Chutes and Ladders"? "Slopes and Lifts" is similar, but opposite. Instead of going up the board, you're going down. You roll dice (let each student get a chance to roll) and go the number of spaces on the dice. Your class will play as a team, competing against the clock. 

(If the below sounds too complicated, just roll the dice and do what each space says!)

If you land on the top of a "slope" you get to go down a portion of the hill. If you land at the bottom of a "lift," you've got to go back up. If you land on an "accident" space, you pick up a card and decide, as a class, both how to react to the accident and how to prevent it from happening again. If you get the answer right, you proceed to the next "healthy" space. If you get it wrong, you stay where you are and roll again.  

If you land on a "Prevention" space, you get a "prevention card" and automatically get out of your next "accident." (Still read the "accident card" and let the students answer. But they get to move to the next "healthy" space whether they got it right or not. After all, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" 

Preparing the Game Board:  I'd put the below on a large poster board, so that all students can see it. You could actually draw the grid as large as you can with a marker, then copy off the below and cut and paste each instruction into each box. You'll need to add gently curving lines from the top of each slope to the bottom of each slope. Also draw a ski lift from each lift bottom to lift top (or search "Google,"  click on "Images," type "ski lift" in the search box, click on "Advanced Image Search" and choose "GIF Files" under "File Types."

Slopes and Lifts

Get
Prevention
Card
(Congratulations for
thinking ahead!)

Slope #1
Ski Safely!

Accident!
(Read an "Accident Card" and decide what to do. Wrong answer? Stay here. Right answer? Go to next "Healthy" square. Play a "prevention card" if you have one and need it.)

Lift #1
Top

Accident!
(Read an "Accident Card" and decide what to do. Wrong answer? Stay here. Right answer? Go to next "Healthy" square. Play a "prevention card" if you have one and need it.)

Healthy

 

Accident!

 

Healthy

 

Accident!

 

Lift #1
Bottom

Accident!

Slope #1 
Bottom

Healthy

Slope #2
Ski Safely!

Accident!

Lift #2
Top

Get
Prevention
Card
(Congratulations for
thinking ahead!)

Healthy

Accident!

 

 

Healthy

Accident!

Slope #2 
Bottom

Accident!

Healthy

Lift #2
Bottom

 

 

 

 

Accident!

 

Slope #3
Ski Safely!

Accident!

Get
Prevention
Card
(Congratulations for
thinking ahead!)

Healthy

 

 

Accident!

 

 

 

 

 

Healthy

Accident!

Slope #3 
Bottom

 

 

Accident!

 

 

Accident!

Healthy

Lift #3
Top

 

 

Slope #4
Ski Safely!

 

Accident!

 

Healthy

Accident!

 

Lift #3
Bottom

Accident!

 

 

Healthy

 

Accident!

 

 

Congratulations!
You Win! 

Slope #4
Bottom

Healthy

 

 

Accident!

Game Hints: 

1 - If students move through it too quickly, tell them to start over and go for a world's record. 
2 - If they keep hitting lifts and getting discouraged, say, "Let's just forget the lifts!" so that they don't get discouraged. You want them to feel like winners at the end!
3 - If they go through all the "accident cards" and start hearing the same ones again, that's okay! They can see if they remember the right response. It's a great review.

Accident Cards (Copy and Cut Out)

The tardy bell is about to ring and everyone is running in the hall to make it to class. What should you do? (Walk and urge others to walk.) You're at a street corner. No cars are coming, but the light's flashing, "Don't Walk". Everyone else is walking. What should you do? (Wait for the "Walk" signal and look both ways before walking.) You're little brother Jeff screams. You find him in the laundry room with a some type of  unfamiliar bottle opened, which he drank.  (Tell your parents. If they're not around, dial 911. To prevent, keep Clorox up high, with cap on tightly.) You're riding your bike about 15 minutes from your house. You fall and your leg is bleeding really badly. (Put pressure on it and yell for an adult.) You're at school lunch. The lights go off and it's completely dark. (Be silent to listen for instructions. Stay put till instructed to do otherwise.) 
You're at home alone. You feel the floor vibrating and glasses clanging in the kitchen. (Find a place nothing can fall on you, like under a big, sturdy desk or table, or against an inside wall, away from glass, hanging pictures, or tall furniture that might fall.) You're playing down the street. A stranger says he needs your help finding a house in your neighborhood and asks you to get in. He says your parents told him you could help. (Tell him you can't and move quickly away from the car and toward your house.) You notice someone choking in the cafeteria. (Call quickly and loudly for the nearest adult.) You're at lunch and someone sneezes in your food. (Tell your teacher what happened and ask kindly for another plate.) You're walking with a friend in the woods. You realize you're lost. (Don't split up.)
You notice a new plastic bag of apples in the fridge. Do you need to wash them? Why? You're in your bedroom and smell smoke coming under your door. You're in the woods with some friends. One friend has matches and wants to build a bonfire. A friend at soccer practice asks for a drink out of your water bottle. You flush the toilet and the water starts overflowing.
You're at school and notice smoke coming out of the teacher's lounge. Who knows where the closest fire extinguishers are at home? At school? You're walking in your neighborhood when the sky gets very black with clouds. You're working on a project on your den floor, using nails and tacks. You decide to take a break and play outside. (Pick them up and set them in a place where nobody will step on them, even if nobody else is home.) It snowed last night! You decide to run outside and play.

Prevention Cards

Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!
Prevention Card
Congratulations
For Thinking Ahead!

How One Teacher Adapted This Lesson

I adapted your idea and it worked well. It was easy to download clip art to incorporate into the game board plus I used a couple of large snowboarding pictures to capture kids' attention. I put the game board on the overhead projector and used paper clips on a tiny bit of colored laminating film for snow board game pieces.  I didn't have any big dice so I numbered the sections (1-6) on a small beach ball. The class wanted to have 2 teams so we did and they were engaged but noncompetitive.  I added more accident cards to address points I wanted to make. (Betsy Hehn, School Counselor, Hanahan Elementary School)