Substance Awareness

A 10-15 minute mini-lesson for Kindergarten students connecting plant/animal needs to human body care and substance prevention. Students learn what living things need to thrive and how harmful substances can disrupt growth, emphasizing the role of trusted adults.

The culmination of the sequence where students present their safety projects, take a safety pledge, and receive their official certification.

Students practice simplified safety concepts by preparing a message or drawing to teach a younger friend or sibling about medicine safety.

Students learn about safe storage solutions and practice organizing medicine in a mock cabinet with barriers like locks and high shelves.

Students explore danger symbols and design their own warning stickers to communicate medicine safety visually.

Students identify unsafe medicine storage in a home environment and discuss risks to children and pets.

Students review the community helpers who respond to emergencies and create a visual map of the safety chain, reinforcing that help is always available.

Students synthesize their learning by creating a class rule chart for medicine safety and practice reciting the key rules: Ask first, check the giver, and never share.

Students practice the physical and verbal steps of calling 911, including reciting their home address and identifying a 'poison emergency.'

Students practice identifying the difference between minor injuries and major medical emergencies, focusing on symptoms that require immediate adult help or a call to 911.

Students identify where medicine should be kept versus where it shouldn't (e.g., locked cabinet vs. kitchen counter). They learn the concept of 'Out of Reach and Out of Sight.'

Students explore the concept that medicine can be harmful if taken incorrectly or by the wrong person, using a plant analogy to understand proper dosage and prescription.

Students discuss how medicine helps the body feel better and learn that different medicines have specific jobs, similar to how different tools are used for different tasks.

Using empty, clean bottles, students explore what a prescription label looks like, focusing on finding their own name. They learn that medicine is special and made for only one person's body.

Groups of students perform short skits demonstrating the correct response to finding medicine or being offered unknown items as a final assessment.

Students identify specific adults who are safe to give them medicine, creating a 'Circle of Trust' visual. They learn that even a nice stranger or a friend is not a trusted adult for medicine.

Students learn to distinguish between reporting to keep someone safe and tattling, focusing on how to describe unsafe situations to adults.

Students participate in a visual sorting activity where they look at images of candies and medicines that look identical. They discuss why looks can be deceiving and learn the rule that we never eat something unless we know exactly what it is.

Students practice specific refusal phrases to use when a peer offers them something unknown that might look like candy.

Students role-play what to do if they find a pill or bottle on the playground or floor, focusing on the 'Don't Touch, Tell an Adult' rule.