PBL Activity about Safety for Young Students
Introduction/Grabber:
For teacher: Here is an example of a video you could show students so that they could see examples of dangerous situations with strangers. This is just one of many options, so pick a video that you see most appropriate or fitting. For this one in particular, I would recommend watching the video beforehand and picking specific parts and scenes you would like to show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_djOEyRe7FQ
Before Viewing: How much do you know about staying safe? If you were in a dangerous situation with a stranger, would you know what to do? Let’s watch this video and find out! I’ll show you different situations, and you tell me what you would do.
After Viewing: So what did we learn? (Driving Question) What can we do as a community to keep kids safe?
Culminating Activities:
Bring in a community member as a guest speaker (most likely police officer, principal, etc) to discuss with students about how to stay safe in and out of school.
Review/Role Play different situations and what students should do.
Write letter to someone the students want to say thank you to for keeping our community safe (police, fire fighter, parent, teacher, etc). This will ensure that students know who they can contact in the case of an emergency, and they can simultaneously practice their writing skills.
Standards:
Writing
1.W.3.1 Write logically connected sentences to make a proposal to a particular audience (e.g., a parent, classmate, etc.) and give reasons why the proposal should be considered.
1.W.6.2a Capitalization – Capitalizing the first word of a sentence, dates, names of people, and the pronoun.
1.W.6.2b Punctuation – Correctly using a period, question mark, and exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. Using commas in dates and to separate items in a series.
Listening
1.SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations about grade-appropriate topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
1.SL.2.3 Listen to others, take turns speaking about the topic, and add one’s own ideas in small group discussions or tasks.
1.SL.2.4 Ask questions to clarify information about topics and texts under discussion.
Assessment:
Assess understanding of safety and writing skills based on the following rubric:
Scoring Level | Credibility of Situation during Role Play | Reaction to Situation during Role Play | Listening to Guest Speaker | Letter to Community Member |
4 - Excellent | Student demonstrated a very plausible situation and it was portrayed clearly. | Student demonstrated a great reaction to the dangerous situation and fully understands the right thing to do. | Student listened very closely, did not have any side conversations, asked participated in discussions. | Student wrote an appropriate and relevant letter to a helpful community member and used proper punctuation and capitalization. |
3 - Strong | Student demonstrated a plausible situation, but was unclear in the portrayal of it. | Student demonstrated a good reaction to the situation, but his/her understanding could use more solidity. | Student listened closely, participated during discussion,, and had few side conversations. | Student wrote a letter to a community member and had minor grammatical errors. |
2 - Average | Student did not demonstrate a very plausible situation, but it was portrayed clearly. | Student seemed unsure of what to do at first, but understood with some help. | Student listened to speaker, but had some side conversations and only partially participated in discussion. | Student wrote a letter to a community member and used improper punctuation and capitalization. |
1 - Needs Improvement | Student did not demonstrate a very plausible situation and it was also not portrayed clearly. | Student was unsure of what to do, and still was unsure after being helped. | Student at times listened closely, but mostly was having side conversations and did not participate in discussion. | Student wrote a letter but it was not appropriate, relevant, and/or had several grammatical errors. |
0 - Poor | Student did not participate in the activity. | Student does not know how to correctly react to a dangerous situation. | Student either was not present or did not listen well and had several side conversations throughout presentation. | Student did not write a letter. |
Outline of an Excellent letter:
Dear Mr./Mrs. ________ ,
Thank you for __________________________________. It is helpful to our community because _______________________________.
You are very ____________ for doing this for us. We appreciate all that you do for us and the community.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Example:
