Celebrate National Safety Month by Teaching Kids About Safety

Every June both individuals and organizations make an effort to raise awareness about safety at work, home, and schools. For parents and teachers, this is a great opportunity to set safety as a theme this month and work with kids to ensure they follow safety guidelines and rules. With this in mind, in this article, we’ll discuss how to teach kids about safety.

Undoubtedly, as parents and teachers, we would love to keep children in front of us the whole time so we can watch over them and make sure they’re safe, but as they grow, they become more curious and want to explore their environment. By the time they’re in school, they’re already pretty independent, very active, and eager to discover new things, which is a good thing as risk-taking is part of their development.

For these reasons, planning ahead and educating kids about safety can prevent injuries, or potentially, a really dark scenario. Of course, we shouldn’t expect kids to follow the rules every time, but being aware of the dangers and consequences can encourage kids to be cautious, withdraw, or ask for help. 

What Is National Safety Month? 

National Safety Month is a month-long annual observance initiated by the National Safety Council (NSC) in 1996. The goal of NSC was to decrease the number of unintentional deaths and injuries in the United States with a safety campaign that raises awareness and promotes safety behavior.

Each year, the NSC identifies and promotes four weekly topics during June. To see the topics for this year, check out their website. They also offer free materials and safety training courses.

Despite the NSC’s focus on work safety, they also have a Child Safety section identifying the risks and safety measures for kids in various surroundings. 

How To Teach Kids About Safety?

The responsibility of protecting kids in their environment falls on parents, teachers, and other caregivers. It’s up to us to assess the risks, familiarize children with these risks, and offer them easy-to-follow safety measures. 

Another thing worth addressing before we discuss specific safety measures is children’s age. Even though we want to protect children from violence and dark topics by keeping them away, the best protection comes when they know what dangers they might face. And, safety learning should start as early as possible. Kids from the age of 2 should already know some very basic things. 

A smart way to raise awareness and teach kids about safety is to set a weekly or daily theme, with assignments, rules, and open discussions on topics related to that theme. For instance, this June, you could have the following four weekly topics. You can also use our safety worksheet pack with which kids can interact and learn what to do in different situations in a fun way!

Teaching Kids About Fire Safety

The first topic in a month-long campaign on how to teach kids about safety is fire! More specifically, to teach kids how to avoid potential hazards with fires and how to behave if they find themselves around a fire. 

A solid lesson plan regarding fire safety involves talking about smoke detectors, escape routes, first steps such as opening windows, checking door nabs if they’re hot, and other useful tips.

Additionally, kids should be aware of the consequences of playing or interacting with objects that could hurt others or start a fire such as firecrackers, burning cigarettes, candles, or lighters.

Finally, it would be great if you can bring a firefighter to present in front of the class. They have experience and knowledge to better explain the most important things to kids. 

Teaching Kids About Gun Safety

Even though kids shouldn’t be around or have access to a gun, we’re well aware that this is not the case since there are a lot of firearm accidents in America involving kids. According to Nation Wide Children, around 1,300 children die from guns and many more are seriously injured every year in the United States only! For these reasons, when we discuss how to teach kids about safety, guns should definitely be on our list. 

The best way to protect kids from guns is we remove all guns from the home and teach kids that guns are not allowed in schools. This way if they notice a person with a gun or simply a gun somewhere in their surroundings, they should immediately inform an adult – their parent, teacher, or another caregiver. 

Have an open discussion on why guns are dangerous and why kids should never touch them, even if they believe they know how to handle them from seeing their parents or on TV.

Teaching Kids About Internet Safety

As the years pass by, computers, smartphones, and the internet are becoming more and more involved in our daily life. We got to a point where we can’t imagine spending a day without the internet. We can’t work, do homework, listen to music, or chat with friends without using the internet. Because of this, we are also at a point where we can’t allow children to be digitally vulnerable. They must know the dangers of being online and how to protect themselves. 

In recent years, there have been a lot of documentaries, TV shows, and movies illustrating the dangers of the internet, which might be something you can use. 

Also, we have an Internet Safety informational pack, with lots of practical advice on how to make online browsing a safer experience for kids. 

Finally, we dedicated a separate article for Internet Safety where we go over some of the most important aspects and give tips on how to tackle these challenges. Make sure to check out this article for more in-depth instruction on how to teach kids about safety on the internet. 

Teaching Kids About Body Safety

The last topic in our “how to teach kids about safety” guide is talking about body safety, grooming, or sexual abuse. Of course, children don’t need to know about the concept of sexual abuse to be able to identify inappropriate behaviors or situations that are potentially dangerous.

Here’s what address on this subject: 

• “Safe” and “unsafe” touching rather than “good” or “bad.” This will prevent children from feeling guilty about calling out a behavior in someone they like or care about.
• Don’t talk about sexuality. Seperate body safety from sexualty and keep the conversation age-appropriate. Kids don’t need to know the motives of grown ups to know that something is not safe, such as being touched in certain areas or in a certain way.
• Address secrets. Most of the time, predators will convince the child that something is their secret in order to keep others from finding out. Kids need to know that some things can’t and should not be a secret.
• Help kids identify “healthy” from “unhealthy” interactions with other people, even close friends and family, from practical examples and animations. 

Before You Go

We tried to address the most prevalent dangers that kids face while in or after school, although we’re well aware there are many other things that should be discussed. Feel free to use our suggestions as inspiration, add additional topics, remove some topics, or completely change the structure and organize a theme that works best for you and your students. 

Whatever you decide, we’re here to support you in any way we can. On our website, you can search through our worksheet library and see if there’s a bundle that you can use this month! Our safety worksheet pack will surely be of help!

Moreover, on our blog, we have several guides and articles with tips for teachers and parents on how to tackle the challenges of educating children today. And, don’t forget that if you subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll also receive news about our upcoming topics and updates in our teaching resources.