Safety City #1
The most fun field trip for all the Abilene and Wylie schools is during their 3rd grade year. They go to safety city and learn about fire safety and road safety, including pedestrian, biking and cars. It is a full day of learning. They learn about what to do in case of a fire and actually get to climb out of a window from a room that is full of smoke. Sophie called is party smoke, like they use on stage or for a halloween party. The kids thought it smelled like vanilla or marshmallows. And they learn the rules of the road.
The parents who volunteered to help are the traffic monitors. This little "city" has miniature buildings, roads, traffic lights, stop signs,... just like a real city. After classroom instruction, the kids are divided into thirds. One third will be driving a mini-car, one third biking, one third being led around a specific path as pedestrians, then they rotate so everyone get's to do everything. And we all work together to keep those worlds from colliding into each other. I was a bit of a nervous nellie as I was assigned to a busy intersection. The cars had to stop at the stop sign, look both ways and if clear then continue on. The pedestrians would be walking her and there and they had to look over both shoulders to do a safety check for cars or bikes. The bikes had to look both ways, make their right hand turn signal, and continue on their way. None of that sounds scary, but with all three happening at the same time and you are the only adult within a hundred feet, whew.
There was this little precious angel girl who was in one of the classes. She had a big smile, you could tell she was as sweet as could be, and full of spunk. She was on a bike rounding her right turn and she looked up at me, you could tell she was trying to turn right, but as she was looking somewhere other than she was biking, her bike went in the direction she was looking. She ran straight into a big orange cone about 12" taller than she was. I asked her if she was o.k. and she said she was and that it was the third cone she had run into.
Then about a half a hour later I look up on the bridge where the cars come from to my direction. And I see this little green beetle bug go up on a curb. The adult manning that area lifted the front end of the car back onto the road and the green beetle bug was off. Hitting the curb off and on the whole way down the bridge and past the curve coming to the stop sign I was posted at. It doesn't take me too long to figure out it is the same little girl who had run into the cone. She ran the car up the curb when she got to the place to stop. Big smile on her face, but I could tell she felt a bit out of her element. She continued on her journey to the next adult about 100 feet away from me, she ran over the tall cone and went the wrong way down the wrong street. The adult hit the kill switch on her car to get the car stopped and turned back around, but that was it. That little angel was done, she hopped out of the car, ran to her teacher and sought some much needed comfort, never to get back in the car again, she was done and didn't even want to finish her one lap around the city. When the adults were being briefed on the instructions we were told that those cars can pretty much go anywhere, and if we were concerned for our safety that we could stand on the benches that were beside the road, although I thought it might be rude of me to jump up on the bench when I saw who was driving. So I just edged back a bit farther from the road. Anyway she was a cute little doodle bug driving a cute little beetle bug. Precious!
Here are some pics.
The parents who volunteered to help are the traffic monitors. This little "city" has miniature buildings, roads, traffic lights, stop signs,... just like a real city. After classroom instruction, the kids are divided into thirds. One third will be driving a mini-car, one third biking, one third being led around a specific path as pedestrians, then they rotate so everyone get's to do everything. And we all work together to keep those worlds from colliding into each other. I was a bit of a nervous nellie as I was assigned to a busy intersection. The cars had to stop at the stop sign, look both ways and if clear then continue on. The pedestrians would be walking her and there and they had to look over both shoulders to do a safety check for cars or bikes. The bikes had to look both ways, make their right hand turn signal, and continue on their way. None of that sounds scary, but with all three happening at the same time and you are the only adult within a hundred feet, whew.
There was this little precious angel girl who was in one of the classes. She had a big smile, you could tell she was as sweet as could be, and full of spunk. She was on a bike rounding her right turn and she looked up at me, you could tell she was trying to turn right, but as she was looking somewhere other than she was biking, her bike went in the direction she was looking. She ran straight into a big orange cone about 12" taller than she was. I asked her if she was o.k. and she said she was and that it was the third cone she had run into.
Then about a half a hour later I look up on the bridge where the cars come from to my direction. And I see this little green beetle bug go up on a curb. The adult manning that area lifted the front end of the car back onto the road and the green beetle bug was off. Hitting the curb off and on the whole way down the bridge and past the curve coming to the stop sign I was posted at. It doesn't take me too long to figure out it is the same little girl who had run into the cone. She ran the car up the curb when she got to the place to stop. Big smile on her face, but I could tell she felt a bit out of her element. She continued on her journey to the next adult about 100 feet away from me, she ran over the tall cone and went the wrong way down the wrong street. The adult hit the kill switch on her car to get the car stopped and turned back around, but that was it. That little angel was done, she hopped out of the car, ran to her teacher and sought some much needed comfort, never to get back in the car again, she was done and didn't even want to finish her one lap around the city. When the adults were being briefed on the instructions we were told that those cars can pretty much go anywhere, and if we were concerned for our safety that we could stand on the benches that were beside the road, although I thought it might be rude of me to jump up on the bench when I saw who was driving. So I just edged back a bit farther from the road. Anyway she was a cute little doodle bug driving a cute little beetle bug. Precious!
Here are some pics.
Comments