Bicycle Safety: Grades 1 - 2

Objectives

• To recognize common traffic signs and signals.
• To understand the importance of obeying traffic signs and signals.

Duration

25 minutes

Materials

Being Safe With Signs (PDF) worksheet and crayons

Preparation

Make individual sample safety signs and signals using the sign worksheet.

Activity

• Ask the children to imagine they are riding in the car with one of their parents. Ask them what the adult should do if they come to this sign (display the Stop sign). Next hold up a traffic signal with the green light colored in and ask them what the driver should do now.
• Discuss with the children what might happen if drivers did not obey traffic signs and signals.
• As a group, brainstorm ways that children get to school, to a friend's house, or to the park. Be sure to include walking, biking, in-line skating, and skateboarding. For example, ask: When you go by yourself or with friends somewhere by biking or in-line skating, do you think you need to follow the traffic signs and signals like cars do? Why or why not?
• Display each of the safety signs and signals you have made using the Being Safe With Signs worksheet. Discuss what each one means. Have volunteers pretend to be biking or in-line skating and hold up the various signs for the children to demonstrate what to do when you come to each one.
• Pass out a copy of the Being Safe With Signs (PDF) worksheet to each child. Explain that the children should look at the shape of each sign and draw what goes inside.
• When the children have finished, pair them with a partner to discuss their signs worksheet and explain to their partner what each one means.