classroom ideas and activities - Tennessee Traffic Safety Resource

CLASSROOM IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES
ON SAFETY BELTS
The following are suggestions for classroom/school activities that will enhance education about the importance
of using safety belts whenever anyone rides in a vehicle.
1. Invite a local policeman, sheriff’s deputy, or TN Highway Patrol to come talk to your class about safety
belts and highway safety.
2. Ask your school librarian to do a safety belt bulletin board, read a book about traffic safety during story
time, or produce a safety belt bookmark to give students.
3. Take a song familiar to students (“Old McDonald”, “Frere Jacque” & “Jingle Bells”) and ask them to
compose new words with a “buckle up” message. You could record the children singing or, better yet,
ask a local radio station to record the children singing the song and ask them to play it on the radio.
4. Have students make newsprint, fabric, or ribbon seat belts to “practice buckling up” at their desk chairs.
5. Try to obtain safety belts from a local auto dealer or junk yard in order to demonstrate the proper way to
buckle and unbuckle a seat belt. You also will be able to show how to adjust a lap and lap/shoulder belt.
6. Do the egg car experiment and use the reproducible coloring/story page: “The Adventures of Humpty
Dumpty – The Egg” (see instructions).
7. Have students make dashboard stickers for the family car to remind the driver and other passengers to
buckle up (see instructions).
8. Have students develop a list of automobile safety features including safety belts (windshield wipers, brake
lights, horn, etc.) and ask them to list the function of each one. Or, you could also ask them to cut out
pictures from magazines that show such safety features and afterwards they could make a safety collage.
9. Develop simple crossword puzzles or “find a word” puzzles using traffic safety terms.
10. Have students “act out” situation dramas about riding with or without safety belts buckled. They can use
chairs with real or handmade safety belts attached to represent car seats.
11. Supply materials for students to make original safety belt posters or compose safety belt slogans from the
information they have learned. The posters or slogans could be displayed in the classroom, hallway,
cafeteria, school office, etc.
12. Set a good example for your students…always ride buckled up!
TN Traffic Safety Resource Service
309 Conference Center Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-4133
1-800-99BELTS (TN only)
http://www.tntrafficsafety.org
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