• 1.

  What do you do to stay safe? Think of precautions you take at home, when you travel, during stormy weather, around water, and in other situations. With your classmates, make a list of safety tips with Crayola® Washable Markers. Categorize your ideas.

• 2.

  On poster board, write a title for your thought diagram, such as Safety Web. Draw a circle in the middle of the sheet, and sketch a healthy, happy person in the circle.

• 3.

  Draw a web with branches from the circle that lead to more circles, which are titled with the safety categories you identified. Draw pictures of each place in those circles.

• 4.

  In the next level of branching circles, illustrate specific safety techniques such as car seats for transportation and smoke detectors for homes.

Benefits

• Children identify several areas in which they take safety precautions, such as travel, household, and weather.
• Students list safety tips to follow in various situations.
• Students organize their ideas in a thought web that illustrates their understanding of safety techniques.

Adaptations

• Use thought diagrams to organize ideas on a different subject, such as settings in a book or the processes involved in making a painting.
• Start with a picture that appeals to you. Use thought diagrams to brainstorm about the picture. Relate your explorations to practical uses, fantasy stories, possible backgrounds for the picture, or other ideas.
• Find out what safety precautions are required where you live, at your school, and on the transportation you use. Why do you think these are laws? What other safety laws would you recommend (or repeal)?
• Demonstrate how to web ideas by creating a class web with younger children and those with special needs. Brainstorm playground safety ideas, recording children's ideas in words on a chalkboard or whiteboard. Ask each child to draw a picture of one of the ideas, then arrange drawings in a web on the classroom floor using yarn or rope to make connections. Invite groups of children to make their own webs, brainstorming ideas on specific safety topics, such as kitchen, pet, classroom, and bicycle safety. Encourage children to record ideas using words and pictures. Share webs with classmates and post on walls as reminders.