TrackSAFE has prepared teacher resources including individual lesson plans and supporting resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum in the following areas:
- English
- Health & Physical Education
- The Arts
English
This unit of work is a five-lesson sequence designed using the Australian Curriculum: English Foundation to Year 10. It aims to further develop students’ understanding and usage of subject specific vocabulary associated with rail safety. This vocabulary will be combined with other collections such as frequently occurring words and for a number of applications in the teaching and learning of spelling.
Read the teacher notes first for instructions and suggested learning pathways. You can then choose to teach all 5 lessons or select a few which suit your students best.
Students experience modelled writing of an informative text as a whole class. Beginning writers then sort letters, words, sentences and pictures about keeping safe around trains; emergent writers create train related words using onset and rime; early writers write an informative sentence about rail infrastructure; fluent writers create a mind map and write an informative text about staying safe on train station platforms. The class shares what they have learnt with each other.
The class helps the teacher collect subject specific vocabulary and write a short informative text about a train station platform or pedestrian level crossing. Beginning writers then dictate or write an informative sentence; emergent writers use words in an informative sentence; early writers use safety words to write an informative sentence; fluent writers write an informative text about keeping their friends safe around trains and tracks. Everyone shares their creations.
Students learn about questions though a “mystery box” as a class. Beginning & fluent writers then pair up to ask and answer questions about safety actions; emergent writers explore questions about pedestrian level crossings using where, when, who, what, how and why; early writers write ‘why’ questions about TrackSAFE actions. Students share what they have learnt about safety and ask each other ‘why’ questions.
Students identify a group in their community who need help to have safe journeys, create an informative text about TrackSAFE actions as a class, and share the message with the group who need help. Beginning & emergent writers then collaborate to write a book; early writers incorporate the message STOP LOOK LISTEN THINK into an informative text about pedestrian level crossings; early writers create a booklet with information that helps people stay safe around train tracks. Students share these creations with the community, teaching others the safety messages.
The Arts
This unit of work is a three-lesson sequence designed using the Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year 10. It aims to develop and enhance students’ imaginations and creativity through individual and collaborative means using voice, body, and instruments in visual and performance art.
Read the teacher notes first for instructions and suggested learning pathways. You can then choose to teach all 3 lessons or select a few which suit your students best.
Students explore lines in real life and in photos, and draw life sized safety lines to practise being safe on train station platforms and pedestrian level crossings. They then discuss some elements and principles artists use to represent ideas visually, and draw or paint a picture of safety lines in context from a perspective of looking down. They develop a safety action to go with their artwork. Finally, they reflect on their work as a class and explain why they chose their art medium, colours and the safety action.
Students explore different sounds and think about sounds that can help keep them safe. They brainstorm rhythms and sounds associated with trains on the track. They then create a short composition of sounds (music), record their composition and experiment with listening in different ways, including ways which make it harder to hear warning sounds around tracks, such as wearing headphones. They can alternatively create a composition with a performance (music & drama) about a train’s journey, using voice, facial expression, movement and space to imagine and establish different roles and safety situations.
Students explore the use of facial expressions to represent emotions. They discuss ways facial expressions might be used to help keep people safe around trains and tracks. They then create a story in drama to communicate feelings by creating a mini-play about keeping vulnerable family members safe whilst going on a train trip, or expressing the feelings of a child and adult when waiting at a pedestrian level crossing. They perform their mini-plays to the class.
Health and Physical Education
This unit of work is a three-lesson sequence designed using the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education Foundation to Year 10 and fits within the safety area of learning in the Personal, social and community health strand. These lessons support this through developing students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of safety actions needed to stay safe in the community and in road environments when near train tracks.
Read the teacher notes first for instructions and suggested learning pathways. You can then choose to teach all 3 lessons or select a few which suit your students best.
Students brainstorm concepts to prepare for a visit to the train station by creating a mind map. The class then visits a nearby train station platform, pedestrian level crossing or train tracks on an excursion. An alternative option for a simulated excursion using a video resource is also provided. Students practice safe walking, and observe and listen for things that help keep them safe.
Students think about and discuss the STOP LOOK LISTEN THINK procedure, or play an outdoor game to practise the actions. They then identify the people who can help keep them safe and protective behaviours they should do near the train tracks, through drawing, writing, mapping; or role playing what adults could do to keep their little brothers safe.
Students create a class frieze of a pedestrian level crossing and train station including the safety features. They then identify actions that promote health, safety and wellbeing by creating a rail safety message. Finally, they create an interesting way of communicating their safety message to the school community, such as an assembly presentation, visual display, class blog post, picture book for pre-schoolers, or e-book.