Activity 9a: Be Aware, Be Smart, Be Safe on a Walk (Urban Area)

To review the basic idea of stoplights and stop signs
To expose participants to possible dangers or obstacles they may encounter on route

Ensure participants are listening to instructions. Use the repeat feature of instruction: Who can tell me what we are doing? What are two things that I need to remember?
Remind participants of the importance of safety.
Ensure participants are engaged in the activity, and are not distracted by other things.
If a participant asks you a question that you feel the whole crew should know the answer to, stop the crew, and explain it to everyone.

The city streets in and around the home location (school or community centre/playground)

Participants are making observations and are inquiring about things they are unclear about.
Participants are moving in crew formation.
Participants are demonstrating respect for the environment.
Participants are stopping, looking, and listening (emphasizing their dramatic poses) before they cross the street.
Participants are practicing the steps of crossing a crosswalk safely.
Participants are actively engaged and participating in the debriefing time.

It is important to walk the route before taking the crew to ensure that it is safe and accessible for all participants.
It is important to go over the walking procedures before leaving the home base.
Be sure to review the proper methods for walking across a crosswalk (See How Did the Chicken Cross the Road).

Guidelines

If others are helping to deliver the program, organize the participants into small crews. If there is only you to deliver the program then all of the participants will work closely with the one leader in a large crew. regardless of the number of leaders, it is essential that the crew leaders carefully go over what is expected of all the participants as they walk the planned route.
Before leaving on the walk, practice “stop, look, & listen” with the participants. Make up dramatic poses for each one.
Remind the participants that it is important to respect a Walking Safety Teaching Manual traffic environment and to always be paying attention to the leader in charge. As the leader of a large or small crew you must always lead from the front.
The leaders should be the first ones to step out on to the street when crossing. However, make sure that participants are all acting as individuals, and each practicing their safe behaviours and individually assessing whether or not it is safe to cross.
Remind the participants to also use the ‘stop, look and listen’ rule when crossing at a railroad crossing.
Throughout the walk, where possible, stop periodically to demonstrate and practice safely crossing the following:

Allow each participant to lead a portion of the walk. When participants are leading, the crew leaders should support them by observing and giving feedback to ensure the decisions they are making are safe ones.

At the end of the walk, be sure to take a few minutes to go over what was seen and address any questions that were not answered during the outing.
Ask them to respond to these questions:
- What do you need to make sure you do before you cross the road when seeing a green or a white flashing light?
- What other light colours are there on a set of traffic lights?
- Even though a traffic light is green, why is it not always safe to cross?
- How should you behave at a crosswalk? What should you do before you cross? Even if a cross walk is not marked, what are the behaviours you should do when walking across a street? What are the proper methods for walking across a crosswalk?
- Now that you know about some important safety considerations in our community, what are some good things about the area you live in?