Table Of ContentINSTRUCTORS’ GUIDE
We recommend that you read this guide in its entirety before planning
your presentation. Reading time is about ffteen minutes.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or stories,
we’d love to hear from you.
1.800.665.6167
www.communitysafetynet.com
email:
SAMPLE LETTER
A copy of this introductory letter should be sent home with each child,
along with the Personal Safety book.
A MESSAGE TO PARENTS ABOUT PERSONAL SAFETY
Knowledge is a powerful weapon in injury prevention. That’s why your child is taking part in our
personal safety initiative, sponsored by the <insert name of your organization>. We believe
that informing our community’s young people about common hazards will help them exercise
good judgement and increasing maturity when faced with potentially dangerous everyday
situations — now, and as adults.
We invite you to participate in this educational process by reading the “Parents” section of
Personal Safety: Smart choices for LIFE. We also encourage you to review the rest of the
information contained in the book and view the award-winning videos (which won an interna-
tional award for “Best Educational Video”) found in our community’s very own safety app, then
discuss it with your child and other family members.
To download our community’s safety app free of charge, just go to the Apple or Google Play
store, search for “CSN” & install. Once Installed, select <insert name of your community>
and away you go, watch the safety videos and take the safety quiz. You will also fnd local
information, safety tips & national agencies to help keep our community safe.
There is even a list of our local business partners who have made this safety initiative possible.
Please thank them for their support.
Yours in Safety,
(Your name, title)
(Name of organization)
2 Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide
INTRODUCTION
Knowledge is a powerful weapon. And the resource
Personal Safety: Smart choices for LIFE (along with
the interactive safety app and this instructors’ guide) will
help you use this weapon in the battle of personal safety
and injury prevention.
It’s important for teaching/ learning to be an interactive
process. Information must be relevant to students’ lives.
As we guide the children through personal safety, it’s
important to imprint the message(s) using their own
images of self and family in the scenarios. Going to the
children for “answers” enables them to take ownership
of the learning.
Our experience has taught us that maintaining student
interest is the key to effective teaching. That is why this
guide is full of ideas and exercises that will help you gain and maintain the attention of your
students by involving them in thought-provoking learning activities.
Where We’re Coming From
When we frst put the Personal Safety resource together,
we believed children would make wise decisions, if exposed
to the proper information. We still think so, thanks in part to
feedback from people like you.
Essentially, Personal Safety has three main purposes:
• To make young people aware of the many ways in which
unintentional injury can occur inside and outside the
home, if the rules of safety are not followed.
• To impart the rules of personal safety, so as to prevent
injury and tragedy.
• To teach young people the correct way to respond in the
face of potential dangers at or away from the home.
Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide 3
Why Your Efforts Are Important
An excellent way to prevent injuries in the home is to teach children how their behaviors, actions,
and decisions can make a real difference when it comes to safety. And by encouraging the kids
to share their learning with family members, the likelihood of safer practices taking root in the
home will increase.
So your decision to teach Personal Safety is likely to
have a lasting impact on quite a number of young people
and their families.
Your Approach
You may wish to hold a series of classes for the kids over
a set period. Or you may decide to briefy address the
children, give them the book to take home and encourage
them to read it with their parents and watch the videos.
Regardless of your approach, your decision to help young
people – and your community – is a positive and mean-
ingful commitment.
The Best Way Is Your Way
We know from experience that this course can be successfully employed by professional teachers
or by people with no offcial teaching experience whatsoever. It can be used within the school
system or outside of it. It works for young people of various ages – and it’s effective in groups
both large and small.
But you know best the circumstances under which you
plan to share this important safety information. And you
know your strengths and capabilities. So you’ll probably
want to pick and choose from our preparation sugges-
tions – and add some of your own ideas, too. It’s a great
idea to mix the course materials with your own experi-
ence and know-how.
If you have a certain exercise of your own that is
particularly effective, please let us know! That way
we can share it with others in future updates of this
guide.
Good luck and have fun!
4 Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide
BASIC PREPARATION
In preparation, we suggest you look over these planning suggestions:
• Review the Personal Safety book and videos, then determine how long you want the presen-
tation to be. Both the book and videos can be covered in sections.
• Divide the material according to the number and length of the sessions. (Consider the
average age of the students you’re teaching. Personal Safety is meant for kids aged 9 to
12. The older the students, the more quickly you can cover the material and the less repetitive
you have to be).
• Employ an exercise or training idea in every session.
• Consider inviting guest speakers. For example, a Police Chief, Firefghter, or EMS worker
would be an ideal choice. Or you may wish to consider inviting someone from the electrical
or gas utility to support your presentation. Medical professionals, such as doctors or nurses,
are also an appropriate choice.
• Consider providing students with paper and pencil for opening sessions. Conscientious
students take notes, and some of the exercises you choose may require writing materials.
• You’ll need a blackboard or easel with paper to help you
teach. Ensure one is available to you.
• The younger your students, the more likely it is that par-
ents will be transporting them. Be prepared for parents’
questions. You may even invite them to attend when a
guest speaker or guest discussion leader is present.
Getting Started
When presenting Personal Safety, here’s a suggested introductory technique:
1) Ask the kids what they think is the number one cause of injuries among children. You may
choose to list their responses.
2) Then ask them how frequently they think a child goes missing or is abducted in North America
(again, you may choose to list their responses).
3) Have them turn to page 10 in the Personal Safety book to fnd the correct answers.
This exercise makes a very strong point about the need for personal safety and careful, smart
choices. And it does so at the most effective moment – as soon as you meet them.
Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide 5
On the next page, we list all kinds of other learning ideas. We’ve also included ten suggested
exercises that get the kids involved. You may not have enough time to complete all of the
exercises (you almost certainly won’t be able to try them all in a single session).
The best thing to do is read over the activity ideas and
exercise suggestions beforehand, and select the ones you
feel are most appropriate to the kids you will be seeing.
Choose activities you think the kids will enjoy and beneft
from, and be sure that you have any required materials
(such as paper and coloring tools) on hand.
Personal Safety Quiz & Diploma
We’ve included a Personal Safety Quiz at the back of the
book, so that young people can demonstrate what they’ve
learned while earning their graduation diploma. The diplo-
ma is also at the back of the book.
Safety App & Video
Each copy of the book includes a QR code link to download your community’s custom safety app.
Within the app is a number of video clips that use animation to help facilitate learning. The videos
provide valuable information about safety at school, at play, and at home. There is also a section
on self-defense. These videos may be used in the classroom setting, or watched at home.
After watching the videos, the app supplements the learning
process with an interactive game challenging kids to demon-
strate what they’ve learned. The object of the quiz is to answer
multiple choice questions and advance through all eight levels
of play. When completed correctly, the player receives a pass-
word (cops) that can be used on the Community Safety Net
website: www.communitysafetynet.com to enter a draw for
prizes such as electronics, T-shirts, hats, and gift certifcates.
We encourage you to watch the videos and consider using it
as a learning tool when presenting to the kids. They should
also be encouraged to watch the videos at home and try it out
themselves.
6 Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide
ACTIVITY IDEAS
To dramatize the experience of learning, you may wish to consider using some of the
following ideas:
• The opening statistic on page 10 in the book states that a child goes missing or is abducted in
North America every 40 seconds. Read that aloud. Then have an adult (parent, teacher, guest,
or older student) ring a bell or sound a horn every 40 seconds, throughout your entire session.
This will emphasize the magnitude of the issue.
• Consider having some of the students write short essays
or give brief talks on how many potential safety hazards
there are in a home, and what steps can be taken to
prevent unintentional injury. (Be sure to give them some
notice if they’ll be giving a talk.)
• Ask students to use the Internet (or library) to research
information on the prevention of personal injury, then
share it with everyone.
• Consider asking several parents to visit the class and
briefy explain what parents can do to help ensure their
children follow the rules of personal safety, or explain
the importance of setting positive behavior standards and consequences. (If they accept the
invitation, ask them to read the section for parents in the Personal Safety book.)
• With the younger children, consider employing puppets to dramatize what can happen when
the rules of personal safety are not followed.
• Ask students to collect newspaper or magazine stories on
personal injury, missing kids, or child abductions. They may
wish to go to the public library and photocopy materials. Have
them read the articles and share what they’ve discovered.
• Help students design a true/false survey about personal safety
and facts. Conduct the survey with the students and analyze
the results together.
• At the end of each section, consider asking specifc questions
about the information just covered.
• Go over the “thought starters” at the end of each section, and
ask the kids to provide their responses.
Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide 7
• Have kids complete the “fll in the blanks” quiz on page 101 in the Personal Safety book.
This can be done before and after studying the book, so as to measure the learning that has
taken place.
• Have the kids take the quiz on pages 101-104. This, too, can be done both before and after
studying the book, so as to measure the learning that has taken place.
• Have the kids draw scenes depicting ways of preventing injury.
The completed pictures may be placed together on a wall, to
form a “personal safety art gallery”, or you may wish to hold
a coloring contest for the best picture(s), as judged by the local
Police Chief or head of the local EMS or the school principal. The
prize(s) offered, could include a ride in an emergency vehicle or
lunch with a an offcer or other community leader.
• Have the kids attempt the word puzzles in the Personal Safety
book, on page 104-106.
• Have the kids fll out the “Emergency I-Dent” section on page
107 in the Personal Safety book. (Note: to complete the fnger-
print part, you will need to coordinate with your local police
department.)
• After completion of the Personal Safety program, have the kids enter the Safety Award
Contest by writing a letter about their newfound knowledge (details are at the back of the
Personal Safety book).
EXERCISE IDEAS
Here are ten suggested exercises you can do with the kids to reinforce learning. Some
exercises may require specifc materials, such as paper or coloring tools.
EXERCISE 1: ALWAYS ROOM FOR SAFETY
Purpose: To remind kids that some rooms are not safe for playing.
Explanation: Not all young people realize that certain rooms in a home contain potential
hazards and are not suitable for playing and running around. In becoming more aware of their
surroundings, kids are likelier to avoid unintentional injury.
8 Personal Safety Instructors’ Guide
