Safety+First!

**Purpose of Activity:** For students to be able to conclude that most injuries are preventable, and to identify methods for preventing common injuries. **Suggested Grade Level:** 3-5 **Materials Needed:** overhead projector, wet-erase markers, helmet **__Description of Idea__** Focus: Begin by wearing a helmet and ask the class why would you wear a helmet like this? (Most will say for protection). If you were to fall off a bike or fall down rollerblading, this helmet will protect you from injuries if you be sure to wear it. Today we will discuss different injuries that happen every day and way we can stop them from happening. Review: Today I am going to get you all to help me out by figuring out if certain injuries can be prevented. I also need you to help me figure out things we can do to stop the injuries! Make sure you speak up with your ideas so we can help each other be safe if any of this were to happen to us! Statement of Objectives: Inform the students how you will talk about fire, water, sports, motor vehicle, falls, poisoning, weapons, and the the injuries that can result if they don’t use the proper methods to prevent them from happening. Teacher Input: Discuss the difference between accidents and avoidable injuries. Tell them that unavoidable accidents are random in nature, sudden, unpredictable, and usually result in injury. Preventable or avoidable injuries are often the result of negligence, lack of safety or prevention measures, risk taking, or careless behavior. Give the students examples of preventable injuries and ask them to discuss how the injuries should be prevented: Fire – burns/smoke inhalation (handle fire and hot items with extreme caution, smoke detectors, escape plan), water (swim only when a lifeguard or adult is watching, wear a personal floatation device when boating), sport related injuries (stretch, protective equipment, safe environment), motor vehicle (ride with a safe driver, wear your seat belt at all times), falls (careful, watch where you are going, keep toys and other loose items off of the floor), poisoning (take medication as directed, put medication in a proper location, keep harmful products in a safe location), weapons (do not touch and contact an adult if found), brain injuries (wear helmets when needed). After the discussion is over, hand out an Injury Card to each student. Have them read their injury aloud and determine if the injury could be avoided. If the injury can be prevented, ask them to determine methods that could be used to prevent the injury. If any of the students have trouble with the answers, ask the class to help them out. If there aren’t enough cards for each person, the students can group into pairs and discuss their answers before sharing with the class. Guided Practice: Group the class into three groups. Give each group a different Possible Injuries overhead worksheet. Give them a marker to match each picture of a possible injury with the correct method of prevention. Have each group come to the overhead and share their answers with the class. Independent Practice: For homework, you should read the newspaper or watch the news and find an example of an avoidable injury. You need to write down what happened and what you would have done to prevent it from happening. Any questions? Closure: "Let’s review what we learned today! Who can tell me an avoidable injury? Who can tell me what you could do to make sure that doesn’t happen?"
 * **Name of Activity:** **Safety First!** ||

**Assessment Ideas:** Injury Cards: flashcards with a common injury on each one so the students can read their injury aloud and the class can discuss ways to prevent that certain injury. "Preventable Injuries" Overhead Worksheets for Guided Practice: Each worksheet will be different so every group will share different injuries. On the left column there will be pictures of possible injuries such as someone cooking, kids swimming, a messy room, a bicycle, sports, weapons, etc. On the right column will be the prevention methods (such as handle hot items with caution, swim only when adult is watching, keep loose items off the floor, etc.) The students will be able to draw a line to match each picture with the correct method of prevention. **Teaching Suggestions:** Try using handouts or PowerPoint (something visual) for the students to have in order to guide the discussion and keep students involved. Try finding a few statistics on injury prevention to give them an idea of how the numbers compare.