Safety in School

Year level

Year 3 (Age 8-9)

Duration

54 minutes

Class size

25 students

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WALT (We Are Learning To)

• Understand and describe what safety looks like, sounds like, and feels like in our school environment.
• Identify safe behaviours and practices in the classroom, playground, and community.
• Reflect on the importance of safety for ourselves and others around us.

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Success Criteria

• I can explain what safety means in different school and community settings.
• I can list examples of safe behaviours in the classroom, playground, and community.
• I can work cooperatively with my peers in group activities.
• I can create visual and oral presentations about safety using bright colourful materials.

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Western Australian Curriculum Links

Personal, Social and Community Health (Health Education)

ACPPS033 – Explore how safe behaviours, communication skills and protective actions can reduce risk and keep people safe.
ACPPS035 – Identify situations where help is needed and learn to access people and places that can help.
ACPPS052 – Develop and apply strategies to keep themselves and others safe in a range of situations including school, playground and community.

General Capabilities

• Intercultural Understanding: Recognise how safety relates to respect for others and community wellbeing.
• Personal and Social Capability: Developing self-awareness and responsible decision making around safety.

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Lesson Overview and Timing

Time	Activity	Description
0-5	Introduction	Discuss what safety means; introduce Treendale GEMS Orange Gem (Safety).
5-15	Brainstorm in groups	Students brainstorm (look, sound, feel) of safety in classroom, playground, community.
15-25	Gallery Walk	Groups create colourful posters of safety examples and place on walls
25-30	Share	Groups briefly share key points from their posters
30-45	Role Play Scenarios & Discussion	Students act out safe and unsafe behaviours in different settings (classroom, playground)
45-50	Reflective Writing or Drawing	Students write/draw safety promises or scenarios about staying safe at school and home
50-54	Wrap-Up & Safety Commitment	Recap learning, make a class safety pledge under the Orange Gem

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Detailed Lesson Plan

0-5 minutes: Introduction to Safety and Orange Gem

• Teacher introduces the Orange Gem from Treendale GEMS, representing safety.
• Ask students "What does safety mean to you?"
• Discuss what safety looks like, sounds like, feels like at school.
• Use bright orange objects/manipulatives to anchor attention and set tone.

5-15 minutes: Group Brainstorm (Groups of 5)

• Form 5 groups of 5 students. Provide coloured paper and markers.
• Each group brainstorms answers to three questions:
  1. What does safety look like in school/classroom/playground/community?
  2. What does safety sound like in those places?
  3. What does safety feel like?
• Use laminated colourful prompt cards to support dyslexic readers (simple images + keywords).

15-25 minutes: Gallery Walk and Poster Creation

• Groups create 1 large colourful poster integrating their brainstorm ideas, focusing on safety in all areas.
• Use colour-coded sections (e.g., blue for playground safety, yellow for classroom safety, green for community).
• Posters displayed around the room for a gallery walk.

25-30 minutes: Groups Share

• Each group presents a 2-minute summary of their poster.
• Teacher highlights connections to safety behaviours and relates to Orange Gem expectations.

30-45 minutes: Role Play Scenarios and Discussion

• Divide students into pairs or small groups; give each a scenario (e.g., playground safety, crossing roads, stranger danger, safe classroom behaviour).
• Each group prepares and acts out scenarios demonstrating safe and unsafe actions and responses.
• After each role play, class discusses what behaviours helped keep us safe.

45-50 minutes: Reflective Writing or Drawing

• Students either:
  • Write a sentence or short paragraph about how they will keep safe, OR
  • Draw a picture showing a safety promise or scenario.
• Provide sentence starters for support, e.g., "I will keep safe by...", or "Safety feels like...".

50-54 minutes: Wrap-Up and Safety Commitment

• Recap key safety points discussed.
• Together, create a class "Safety Pledge" poster linked to Orange Gem expectations.
• Students sign or place a handprint on the pledge poster as commitment.

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Differentiation Strategies

• For students with learning difficulties or dyslexia:

  • Use dyslexia-friendly fonts on materials (e.g., Arial, OpenDyslexic).
  • Provide visual supports, simple prompt cards with pictures and key words.
  • Allow oral presentations or drawings instead of written work.

• For advanced learners:

  • Challenge to include safety examples that consider less obvious risks (e.g., sun safety on playground, emotional safety).
  • Extension task: Create a digital multimodal presentation or video showing safety at school.

• For EAL/D students:

  • Pre-teach key vocabulary (safe, unsafe, look, sound, feel).
  • Pair with fluent peers for group activities.
  • Use visual clues and gestures throughout the lesson.

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Assessment

• Observation of group participation and collaboration during brainstorming, poster work, and role plays.
• Evaluate understanding through oral sharing and role play execution.
• Assessment of reflective writing/drawing to check engagement with safety concepts.
• Use a simple rubric with success criteria (expression of safety, relevance of examples, cooperation).

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Resources Needed

• Large coloured paper, markers, crayons
• Laminated prompt cards (images plus words)
• Orange gem Treendale badge or visual symbol
• Scenario cards for role play
• Whiteboard and pens
• Dyslexia-friendly sentence starter sheets

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This lesson powerfully aligns with Western Australian Curriculum Health outcomes for Year 3 by building students’ awareness and skills to be safe in school and community, using engaging hands-on group work and inclusive approaches that cater to diverse learners, all within the Treendale GEMS Orange Gem safety framework. Bright colours, manipulatives, role-play and group collaboration ensure active and multisensory learning that year 3 students love【6:ACPPS033.md】【6:ACPPS035.md】【6:ACPPS052.md】.