Reading, writing and rail safety
For teachers returning to the classroom this year, how about kickstarting the school year off right by making rail safety a fundamental part of your class curriculum?
When creating your lesson plans, incorporate rail safety by using the easily downloadable Operation Lifesaver resources available online, perfect for students of all ages. A great place to start looking at the materials you need in order to do this is the Operation Lifesaver Educator’s Guide.
Having these online resources handy for students can help to ignite some questions they may have:
- What do the rail safety signs mean?
- Why does my bus driver always tell us to be quiet when we stop at railway crossings?
- What do the flashing red lights mean?
- Why is the gate lowered?
Keep their minds in motion
As their eyes wander during in-class discussion, post some of the eye-catching Operation Lifesaver posters on your classroom walls reiterating the rail safety message. While you may not have their attention at that moment, you can be guaranteed they are looking at something, and it might as well be educational.
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Photo Credit: Rail Safety New Zealand[/caption]
Incorporate rail safety into day-to-day activities
- Incorporate games from the Operation Lifesaver activity booklet. This is a great tool to get the students thinking rail safety and driving the message home in a way the kids will be able to easily understand.
- While you’re at it, encourage your online-savvy students to check out the Operation Lifesaver kid-friendly site: olkids.ca.
The best part of all of this is that all of these resources are available for free, which means you don’t have to stand in the long line-ups at the educational stores—an extra bonus this time of year.
Help us drive home the rail safety message to students this school year and remind them to always: Look, Listen & Live.