According to research conducted among primary school students our team decided to do our best to help the youngest road users to be more confident and aware of the main demands of the road.
Tes Idées
Lviv is a big city with busy traffic so the first problem parents of primary pupils face is how to let their dearests go to school and then come back home while crossing the busy streets. That is why our team decided to help both parents and their small road participants.
The idea was to show 7-year old children how it is important not only to know but to keep the road rules. So, through brainstorming, or brainwriting, and the survey our team expected to find out the main problems and difficulties.
1) Brainstorming – (actually it was brainwriting or even braindrawing). We wanted to know what the main problems were and why small children have road accidents. And the main point was that a very small amount of children dress bright enough to be seen in darkness.
2) The survey - we created the survey, coded it into a QR code and shared it on social networks, the school website and on the school walls. The target public of the survey was 7-year old children, starting to go to school on their own. Sixty-five responses were given and the results have shown that most of the children know the simplest rules (though some didn’t), and that they are afraid of crossing the road after dark.
3) Trainings - through games and quizzes we wanted to show the children that the road can be safe when they are seen on it; also the aim was to revise the main traffic rules through the game.
4) Flash mob - in practice, on a real road at night, we wanted to show how bright clothes work.
Our motto was: Learn yourself - Teach others!
Tes initiatives
Working on the main ideas led us to what we have done.
1) After brainwriting/braindrawing we understood that our children are very clever and they really know the traffic rules. They like watching cartoons where the main characters are trains, cars and police officers.
2) Analyzing the survey we were also convinced: parents can be calm; their children know the traffic rules and traffic signs. Also, we have created a special page in our school daybooks (we have daybooks for every student) which is called ‘The safe way to school’. Pupils, together with their parents, will draw a safe route from their home to school.
3) Trainings were the most exciting part of the project. Our team wrote the script for a play where the main characters were the Obstacle, the Traffic Light and the Wise Cat. There were quizzes, puzzles, songs and a lot of fun. But the most interesting for kids was the online game, created by our partner NGO, 'Lviv - the safe city', where children needed to do different tasks (dress the cyclist, choose the proper light to cross the road, a traffic signs memory game). After that children were asked to create their own illustrated books about road safety. In the school library we organised an exhibition, each book had a number so the other schoolchildren could read them and choose the best one. The winners were awarded with reflective bracelets.
4) Flash mob 'Light Up' was danced on the real road at night. The girls were dressed in the reflective vests and reflective bracelets. The video of flash mob was uploaded onto the YouTube Channel and was shared through social networks, published on the school website and on the website of our partner NGO, 'Lviv - the safe city', and it has also been broadcasted in the school hall, with more than 340 reviews, happy children, excited parents and we suppose hundreds of children's lives saved.
To sum up, a lot of work has been done but that's not the end - that's the start. We should care about our safety and never forget that there is nothing more important than life.
