Strategy
Safety Skills
Directly address possible situations to help children learn what to do in an emergency.
This activity has been revised and was originally created by Charlotte Cushman and published in the Perkins Activity and Resource Guide (1st edition, 1992). The second edition is available for purchase.
This practical activity teaches students to develop problem-solving skills in emergency situations, in addition to recognizing people and situations which might be potentially dangerous. Lessons include Independent Living and Concept Development.
Situation cards
Make up a set of situation cards which present potentially dangerous situations. Ask students what they would do in the following situations:
- You get lost in the shopping mall.
- You cut your finger and it starts to bleed.
- You notice a small fire in a trash can outside your house.
- You are home alone and someone you don’t know comes to the door.
- You find some cleaning fluid that has been left open in your house.
- Someone you have never met offers you a ride.
- You are walking around outside and you find some candy or snack food on the ground.
- Someone you do not know tells you that your mother sent him to pick you up, but your mother never mentioned anything about it.
- A stranger offers you something to eat or drink.
- You go for a walk and you find some berries on a bush.
- It is a hot day and you would love to swim in your neighbor’s pool, but no one is home.
- If students cannot come up with their own responses, give them a choice of possible responses, and ask them to decide what would be the safe thing to do.
- For more advanced students, this activity can be set up as a board game in which they try to get from home to school. They roll the die and advance to a given space. There they draw a situation card that gives them choices. If they choose the correct answer, they advance a given number of spaces. The first player to reach the school is the winner.
Hint: Be aware that some students might over-react to these situations and become frightened of common daily events or normal encounters with any people they do not know.
