What is Walk Safely to School Day?
Now in its 20th year, National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual event when all children will be encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment.
When is Walk Safely to School Day?
Friday, 19 May
Teaching road safety and lesson ideas
1. Create a giant road map
Educator: Make a giant map of roads, paths and pavements out of coloured paper stuck together. You can also include features that you have in your local area, like crossings or a park.
Children: Engage in cutting out pictures of vehicles, people, dogs and buggies out of old magazines. Stick the pictures in the right place on your giant road. Vehicles on the road, people on the pavement and in the park!
Educator: Practice with the children key road safety words related to what’s in the picture. Can you see a …..? How many ……? What colour is the…..? Then stick your giant road on the wall as part of a road safety display. Make sure your display is somewhere parents will see it.
2. Looking and listening skills
What can you hear? What can you see? What can you sing?
Educator: Record some road sounds, or find them online: car, fire engine, motorbike, bicycle bell, a pedestrian crossing beeping. Play these sounds to children getting them to match them with appropriate pictures, and saying what makes what noise, for example, ‘The blue car goes brum brum brum, The big red fire engine goes nee nah nee nah….' etc.
Children: Sit in a circle and guess the noises when you play them, matching them to the pictures you show them.
3. Giant handprint display
Create a giant poster of children’s hand prints and write ‘We hold hands’ at the top, and display it where parents as well as children can see it. TEACH TO ALWAYS HOLD HANDS!!!
WSTSD promotes the important message that active kids are healthy kids. The event encourages parents, carers and their children to build regular walking to and from school into their daily routine. Children need a minimum of 60 minutes exercise per day. Encouraging less driving and more walking aims to decrease dangerous vehicle congestion around schools and reduce carbon emissions from idling cars. Lastly, it is just a nice way to be part of your community. Visit www.walk.com.au/WSTSD to accesses a huge range of resources for your school.