ELC News
Anna Pummeroy, ELC Teacher
Supporting road safety education in the ELC
By helping our children develop road safety skills, behaviours and attitudes, we are assisting them to be safer on our roads as pedestrians, passengers and users of bicycles and scooters.
In the ELC, we do this through holistic, embedded and intentional teaching opportunities throughout the year.
During group experiences, the children sing songs, engage with stories and information and communications technology (ICT) clips and discuss relevant topics. In free play, the children play games such as lotto or bingo; create communities in the block area with roads, cars, buildings and road signs; and collaborate and problem-solve with others to create props such as traffic lights, street signs or fuel pumps.
When walking around the School and participating in emergency evacuation drills, the children practice walking in a group, holding hands along the footpath and safe ways to cross the road.
'Bring your bike/scooter and helmet to kindergarten day' was a fun and immersive experience for the children. As educators, it was a delight to observe and support the children as they navigated their way around the course, taking on roles as traffic-light operators, crossing supervisors, fuel attendants, mechanics and road users.
Following this experience, we also encouraged the children to share their reflections. Here are a few of them.
ELC STUDENT REFLECTIONS
Jaden Chen – My favourite thing was riding my scooter at Dalton Hall because I got to wash my car and to fix my scooter’s wheels. I also got to stop at the red lights and go through the green lights. And I got to blow my whistle (pretend) for the crossing supervisor. It meant the people had to go from the other side of the road. I got to go through the washing machine. It washed my scooter. It felt like so much fun.
Lucy Leigh – I liked scooting around and I also liked getting my scooter filled up with petrol and electricity. I paid $1800 dollars! I also liked going through the car wash. It was all white and purple. I had the traffic light job and the lollypop lady. I had to flip open the traffic lights and I also had to turn the stick to tell it to stop and go. I liked all of it!
Olivia Korenko – I was holding the stop and go sign. The bicycles and scooters had to stop and go. I was being the people that crossed the road. I fixed it with tools and stuff at the garage. It was a bit tricky to ride through the car wash with my bike because my bike kept moving around. My favourite part was riding the bicycles all around the place. I had to charge the car since it was out of batteries. It went faster.
We look forward to further supporting these important life skills through an incursion with ‘Thingle Toodle’ in a few weeks time. For more information, please refer to the child road safety website.