Preschoolers will practice coding – both by trying to compose their own code, and by decoding already existing one. They will go for a long walk where they will consolidate the rules of safe road movement and will conduct observations related to road traffic. After returning to the kindergarten, they will count the observed objects and do an artwork entitled “Traffic light”.

Materials:

coding mat or white A4 sheets, a picture of children and the kindergarten building, arrows, wristbands/bracelets, a worksheet entitled”Safe to kindergarten”, picture card with traffic light with different lights, a song entitled “Red Says STOP”, paper plates cut in half, black sheets of technical block cut in half lengthwise, circles in three colors: red, yellow and green, black string, scissors, glue, black paints, brushes, water, cups.

Activity description:

1. “Hello to those who …” – greeting children – children and their teacher sit in a circle. Teacher pronounces the next sentences, and children whose passwords are spoken get up, go around the circle and return to their place. Teacher comes up with new sentences until all children are greeted:

• Hello to those who have come to the kindergarten on foot,
• Hello to those who have come to the kindergarten by car,
• Hello to those who have come to the kindergarten by bike,
• Hello to those who have come to the kindergarten by tram,
• Hello to those who have come to the kindergarten with a scooter etc.

2. “The way to the kindergarten” – coding on the carpet – teacher spreads a coding mat or white A4 sheets of paper on the carpet (for example, six sheets in four rows). Teacher places a picture of the kindergarten building and a picture of children on the mat or cards. The task of the preschoolers is to guide children to the kindergarten using the arrows. Diversify the game by placing a pedestrian prohibited sign on the board. Ask the preschoolers to bring children to the kindergarten according to the code invented by their teacher.

3. “Dictation walking” – movement activity – children line up and put on a wristband/bracelet on their left hand, and then follow the teacher’s instructions, e.g .:

• Take three steps forward.
• Turn left.
• Crouch.
• Get up.
• Stomp your right foot.
• Take three steps to the right.
• Jump up.
• Take two steps back, etc.

4. “Safe to the kindergarten” – worksheet – teacher discusses with children how to complete the task (draw arrows in accordance with the code or draw arrows so that children do not enter the fields with a pedestrian prohibited sign). Then, he/she asks children to go to the tables and hands out the work cards. While children are doing their task, teacher goes between the tables, helps the children if they need it and checks the correctness of the task.

5. “Anna’s walk to the park” – movement story – teacher thinks up a story about a children’s walk, for example, to a park, taking into account safe movement on the road, children move the story’s content with the movements.

For example, children lie down on the carpet with their eyes closed, and teacher begins to tell: On Saturday, Anna, awakened by the sun’s rays, rubbed her eyes, stretched and got out of bed. She dressed quickly – put on underwear, shorts, a T-shirt, ran to breakfast, which she ate quickly, then brushed her teeth and was ready to go to the park. Anna was kicking her legs impatiently while waiting outside the door for her parents. A huge smile crossed her face as she saw that her parents were ready to go for a walk. Everyone was walking quickly along the sidewalk towards the pedestrian crossing. There were no traffic lights at the crossing, so you had to be very careful and look first left/right, then right/left and left/right again to make sure nothing was going and go to the other side. The family crossed the lanes and headed to the park. In the park, Anna and her parents were running in the clearing, making sand mud pie in the sandbox on the playground and playing tag. When it was time to go home, Anna’s face became sad because she would like to have fun all day. The family went back to the pedestrian crossing. And again they looked first left/right, then right/left, and left/right again to cross safely to the other side. After returning home, her parents praised Anna for remembering how to behave at a pedestrian crossing when there were no traffic lights.

6. “Safe on the road” – preparation for observation – teacher shows children the observation sheet and asks children what they see on it. Then, he/she informs children that during the walk, you should focus on looking for the things on the card. When child notices a sign, a zebra or a traffic light informs the rest of the children and teacher, and then draws a line in the appropriate column.

7. “Walk” – a long walk around the kindergarten in order to observe the traffic and search for objects from the observation sheet. Teacher reminds children of the safety rules while walking.

8. “What did we find?” – summary of the observation – after returning to the kindergarten, children and their teacher sit in a circle and talk about the observation, and then count the number of times they managed to observe the objects.

9. “Red, yellow, green” – movement activity – children move freely on the carpet to the rhythm of the song entitled “Red Says STOP”. When the music stops, teacher shows a signal with a given color of light, and children find this color in the room and touch it. Repeat the game by changing the colors several times.

10. “Traffic light” – artwork – teacher presents and talks over how should children do the artwork. Next, he/she asks selected children to place materials and asks the group to go to the tables. After the artwork, they clean up, sit on the carpet and present their works.

1. Paint both halves of the paper plate with black paint – paint over the entire surface of the plate carefully.
2. Place the wheels on a black sheet from the technical block – as they appear on the traffic light – do not stick!
3. After teacher has checked the correct alignment of the wheels – glue them.
4. Glue the halves of the painted plate on the top and bottom of the beacon.
5. Stick a piece of string in a loop on the top half of the plate.

Attachments:

Pictures for “The way to kindergarten” activity

Worksheet entitled “Safe to kindergarten”

Observation sheet entitled “Safe on the road”

Picture cards for activities entitled “Red, yellow, green” and “Red Light Red Light What Do You Say?”

Pages used:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow1i916uYYU – a song entitled “Red Says STOP”
2. http://teachersmag.com/posts/box-city-cardboard-box-activity – an idea for the “Box city” artwork