Creating Safety Posters

Year 7 Health – Lesson 2 of 4 in the Unit "Safe Choices in Health"

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📘 Australian Curriculum Alignment

Learning Area: Health and Physical Education
Strand: Personal, Social and Community Health
Sub-Strand: Making healthy and safe choices
Content Descriptor:
ACPPS073 – Investigate community resources and ways to seek help about health, safety, and well-being.
ACPPS072 – Plan and practise strategies to promote health, safety, and well-being.

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🎯 Learning Intentions

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Finalise a safety poster that features five clear railway safety rules.
• Express and justify their opinions about why safety is important in their everyday environments.
• Use a rubric to self-assess and improve their visual communication.
• Demonstrate responsibility through thoughtful work and peer collaboration.

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✅ Success Criteria

Students will:

• Present a poster that contains five accurate, clearly written railway safety rules.
• Include at least two sentences expressing their opinion on the importance of safety.
• Follow visual literacy conventions (e.g. layout, appropriate use of colour, readability).
• Use the teacher-provided Assessment Rubric to improve their draft.

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⏰ Lesson Duration: 45 minutes

👩‍🏫 Class Context

• Number of Students: 2 Year 7 students
• Setting: Focused, semi-formal with opportunity for 1:1 instruction and active student voice.
• Prior Knowledge: In Lesson 1, students explored various real-life risks associated with railway tracks and brainstormed safety strategies.

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📚 Resources and Materials

• A3 poster paper
• Graphic markers, coloured pencils, glue sticks
• Pre-prepared Railway Safety Poster Rubric (printed and read together)
• Safety rules brainstorm from Lesson 1
• Student notebooks or laptops for drafting written components
• Visual exemplars of strong safety posters (printed or on board)
• Stopwatch or timer
• Quiet creative space for working

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🧠 Engage: 5 Minutes

Activity – “Safety Superheroes” Quickfire Think-Pair-Share

Ask: “If you were a safety superhero for the day, what’s the most important rule you would tell every young person about trains and tracks?”

• Students verbalise their top railway safety rule to the teacher/s.
• Write each student's hero rule on the board to ignite creative thinking.

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💡 Explicit Teaching: 7 Minutes

Mini-Lesson: What Makes an Effective Poster?

With both students gathered around visuals:

1. Display a well-constructed railway safety poster (real or teacher-created).
2. Ask: “What grabs your attention?” “What is the message here?”
3. Break down how visuals (colour, text size, symbols) are used to convey meaning.

Emphasise: “Your poster isn’t just about information—it’s about IMPACT.”

Introduce the Assessment Rubric and read through each criteria aloud:

• Clarity of message
• Number and accuracy of safety rules
• Creativity and design effort
• Use of space/layout
• Personal reflection/opinion

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✍️ Activity – Poster Creation: 25 Minutes

Task:

Students continue working on their Railway Safety Poster, applying feedback and ideas from Lesson 1 and today’s rubric.

Teacher Role:

• Circulate and conference with each student (1:1 due to small class size).
  Ask questions like:

“Which of your rules do you think is most important? Why?”
“Have you told the viewer why your poster matters?”
“How could you redesign this part to make it clearer?”

• Use post-it notes to leave encouraging feedback between touchpoints.

Student Inclusions:

Each poster must include:

• Five student-authored safety rules around trains/railway tracks.
• Two sentences (minimum) that explain why safety matters to them personally.
• Visual design elements: borders, colour schemes, bolded headings.
• Space for peer or teacher feedback (to be filled out in next lesson).

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🗣 Closure: 5 Minutes

Gallery Preview & Reflect

• Students lay out their in-progress poster facing up.

• Use “See, Think, Wonder” protocol:

  • What do you see that stands out?
  • What do you think this poster is trying to say?
  • What do you wonder about this design/message?

• Short student reflection in notebook:

  “One thing I’m proud of in my poster is…”
  “One area I want to improve next time is…”

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📝 Assessment Opportunities

• Formative: Observation during poster creation, quality of safety rules, clarity of message, ability to reflect.
• Use of Rubric: Guides both student self-assessment and teacher feedback.
• Anecdotal Records: Jot down misconceptions or clarity gaps for revisit in Lesson 3.

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🔄 Differentiation & Support

• One-on-one conferencing tailored to each student’s pace.
• Visual aids for students who need support with layout or writing structure.
• Prompt sheets available for students needing help with sentence starters:

  “I think safety is important because…”
  “This rule helps me feel safe when…”

Students can verbalise their opinions first before writing if needed.

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🔗 Links to Future Lessons

• Lesson 3: Sharing posters and delivering a short “Safety Talk” using their poster as a prompt.
• Lesson 4: Exploring other safety environments (online, parties, roads) and creating a personal Safety Action Plan.

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✨Teacher Tip

With a class of two, pause mid-lesson for a creative brainstorm session. Ask each student to pretend they’re designing a public safety campaign for the local train station. What slogans, visuals or sound bites would they include? Use this to enrich the creativity and purpose behind their posters.

Remember—this isn’t about arts and crafts, it’s about students taking ownership of safe decision-making in their real environment.

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End of Lesson 2 Plan – Safe Choices in Health