Buckle Up! Bumper Stickers

1. Invite a member of the local police department, fire/rescue team, school transportation department, or other community safety expert to talk with the class about child passenger safety. Find statistics about injuries resulting from safety precautions that are ignored or used improperly. Discuss how students can help their families and friends use appropriate safety restraints while traveling in a motor vehicle. Young children show each other how to use their own child safety booster seats.
2. Have students fold construction paper in half lengthwise in the shape of a long rectangular bumper sticker. Cut along the fold with Crayola Scissors.
3. In the middle of the bumper sticker, write a safety slogan in large lettering with Crayola Washable Markers.
4. Create a stamper by shaping a car or other transportation symbol from Crayola Model Magic. Color the surface of the stamp with marker. Press along the edge of the bumper sticker. Repeat to create a colorful, patterned border.
5. Display bumper stickers on a bulletin board or hallway gallery area.

LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

LA: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

LA: Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts or relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Give examples of and explain group and institutional influences such as religious beliefs, laws, and peer pressure, on people, events, and elements of culture.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

In lieu of a bumper sticker, students create a 1-2 minute commercial about their chosen safety concern and act out their safety messages using simple props created from recycled materials. Video-tape commercials and upload them to a classroom computer for future viewing.

Students recreate their bumper stickers on construction paper, cut to size, and attach to magnetic paper. These can be attached to automobiles as original artwork!