Identifying Safe Spaces

Year Level

Years 3 and 4

Duration

45 minutes

Class Size

29 students

Unit Context

Lesson 5 of 7 in the unit "Building Safety and Resilience"

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NSW Curriculum Links

Learning Area

Health and Physical Education

Content Descriptions

• ACPPS033: Describe factors that help their own and others’ health, safety, and wellbeing
• ACPPS035: Recognise situations and opportunities to promote their own and others’ health, safety, and wellbeing
• ACPPS037: Describe and apply behaviours that promote health, safety, and wellbeing
• ACPPS039: Describe and practise strategies to manage emotions and interact positively with others

Achievement Standard Summary

By the end of Year 4, students interpret health information and apply strategies to enhance their own and others’ health, safety, relationships, and wellbeing. They describe and apply protective behaviours and help-seeking strategies to keep themselves and others safe in various environments.

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Learning Objectives

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

1. Identify and describe home, school, and community environments that they consider safe and healthy.
2. Explain factors that contribute to creating safe spaces.
3. Create a visual map representing their safe spaces, illustrating factors that contribute to safety and wellbeing.
4. Reflect on why different environments provide feelings of safety and how they can help maintain safety in these spaces.

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Key Vocabulary

• Safe space
• Environment
• Healthy
• Community
• Wellbeing
• Respect
• Protective behaviour
• Help-seeking

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Resources Needed

• Large paper or cardboard sheets for map creation (one per student or pairs if more appropriate)
• Colouring materials: markers, crayons, pencils
• Sticky notes or small labels
• Pre-prepared worksheet with prompts about homes, schools, and community places for discussion
• Whiteboard and markers
• Picture cards representing different safe spaces (home, school, park, library, sports ground, etc.)
• Timer or clock for activity management

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Lesson Breakdown

1. Introduction and Engagement (8 minutes)

• Teacher explains the lesson context: Remind students that this is about understanding safety and resilience in the places where they live, learn, and play.
• Warm-up question: "Can you think of places where you feel really safe? Why do you feel safe there?"
• Use a whiteboard to jot down examples from students, categorising them into home, school, and community.
• Show picture cards of various places and ask which feel safe and why.

2. Class Discussion: What Makes a Space Safe? (10 minutes)

• Discuss factors contributing to safe spaces, such as:
• Friendly people
• Rules that protect people
• Clean and tidy environments
• Good lighting and visibility
• Accessibility and comfort
• Use age-appropriate examples and ask students to add their own.
• Prompt with questions like, "How do these factors make people feel safe?" and "What could make a place unsafe?"

3. Main Activity: Creating Visual Maps of Safe Spaces (20 minutes)

• Task: Students create their own visual maps illustrating their safe spaces.
• They can draw areas in their home, school, or community where they feel safe.
• Include labels or symbols representing the factors that make these places safe and healthy.
• Encourage creativity — maps can be colourful, include symbols, and different landmarks.
• Provide prompts on the worksheet to guide their thinking, such as:
• "Where do you go at home to feel safe?"
• "Which parts of the school make you feel safe and why?"
• "What community places do you visit that make you feel happy and safe?"
• Circulate to assist students and encourage descriptive language.

4. Sharing and Reflection (7 minutes)

• Invite some volunteers to share a part of their safe space map.
• Encourage students to explain why they feel safe in those spaces and what makes these environments healthy.
• Discuss briefly how everyone’s safe spaces might look different and that’s okay.

5. Conclusion and Safety Tip Challenge (End of class - 2 minutes)

• Summarise by reinforcing that safe spaces help us feel good, keep us healthy, and help us grow.
• Challenge students to think about one thing they can do to help keep a space safe (at home, school, or in the community) until the next lesson.
• Invite quick sharing or note down these ideas on the whiteboard as exit tickets.

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Assessment

• Formative: Observation of student participation during discussion and engagement in the map creation activity. Check if students can accurately identify and describe factors contributing to safe environments.

• Summative: Visual maps serve as an assessment artifact to demonstrate students’ understanding of safe spaces and safety factors. Oral sharing/reflections on their safe map demonstrate their ability to articulate their learning.

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Differentiation Strategies

• Provide additional scaffolds or sentence starters for students who need more support in expressing ideas.
• Offer options for drawing or verbal explanations for students who may have difficulty with fine motor skills or written language.
• Encourage peer support and collaboration for students who benefit from social learning.

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Extension Ideas

• Integrate a technology component where students use a simple digital drawing tool or app to create their map.
• Introduce a small group project to explore safety features in a particular community space (library, park) and propose one safety improvement.

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This lesson plan aligns tightly with the NSW Health and Physical Education Curriculum for Years 3 and 4. It focuses on building students’ understanding of safe environments and developing their capacity to apply this understanding personally and socially, which is a crucial component of building resilience and safety awareness in young students.