Ideas for activities at school

Students illustrate, in color, their representation of one of the following themes: illustrate the area around your school in 20 years if we keep adding more cars to the roads, or illustrate the area around your school in 20 years if we change our travel habits and eliminate cars.

Objectives : 

• Get students to think about the impact of their mode of transport.
• Showcase students' artistic talents and creativity.
• Encourage participants to opt for more active modes of transportation when commuting to and from school.

Duration of activity : Approx. 60 minutes (depending on level).

In this activity, students are invited to remind motorists to respect the 30 km/h speed limit in school zones. Accompanied by teachers, parents and, if possible, police officers, students take turns using the roadside radar to measure vehicle speeds. Students hold up a «Wow» sign if drivers are going the right speed, and a «Wô» sign if they're not.

Objectives : 

• Educate motorists about speed limits in school zones.
• Make students aware of vehicle speed in the school zone and safety issues.

Duration of activity : The activity lasts about 30 minutes, usually around the time the students arrive in the morning.

This activity was developed by the SAAQ and is hosted free of charge by your local police department. «Génivélo's riddles are designed to help youngsters aged 7 to 12 learn to ride their bikes safely and have fun at the same time. Through the themes covered, youngsters understand that bicycles are not toys, and that they must observe the same safety rules as other road users.

The concept adopted is that of a walking rally within a perimeter reserved for the activity (gymnasium, schoolyard, parking lot, etc.). The youngsters must pass through a series of animation stands, each solving a riddle. Five themes are covered: road signs, visibility, helmets, traffic rules and body language.

Objectives : 

• Encouraging young cyclists to adopt safe behaviors while having fun.

Duration of activity : Approximately 60 minutes, but this can be adapted as required.

Quiz on the theme of active transportation, particularly cycling and walking.

Objectives : 

• Quiz on the theme of active transportation, particularly cycling and walking.
• - Teach participants new notions about active transportation

Duration of activity : Varies according to the age of the participants and the time allocated to the activity.

Each participating class determines a destination in the world to which it would like to virtually travel. Using pedometers, the number of steps taken by all students in the class is counted each day until the number of steps required to reach the chosen destination is reached. A deadline must be set for reaching the destination, and the class must make sure they meet it!

Objectives : 

• Encourage students to walk to school to accumulate steps.
• Use mathematical skills in a concrete context.
• Enable students to collectively achieve a goal set by the whole class.

Duration of activity : Varies according to destination.

Urban Explorers is an awareness-raising activity that takes place partly outdoors, so that students can observe their environment and the signage around the school while actively moving around.

Objectives : 

• Experiment with active movement.
• Explore the neighborhood around the school.
• Locate and identify road signs.
• Encourage students to develop their autonomy in their neighborhoods.

Duration of activity : Minimum 60 minutes, ideally 90 minutes.

Urban Explorers is an awareness-raising activity that takes place partly outdoors, so that students can observe their environment and the signage around the school while actively moving around.

Objectives : 

• Experiment with active movement.
• Explore the neighborhood around the school.
• Draw the route of the hike on a map.
• Identify areas around the school that present obstacles to active travel.
• Identify safe and unsafe elements around the school.
• Learn about the pedestrian and cycling facilities around the school.
• Help children develop their autonomy in their neighborhoods.

Duration of activity : Minimum 60 minutes, ideally 90 minutes.

Urban Explorers is an awareness-raising activity that takes place partly outdoors, so that students can observe their environment and the signage around the school while actively moving around.

Objectives : 

• Experiment with active movement.
• Explore the neighborhood around the school.
• Draw the route of the hike on a map.
• Identify areas around the school that present obstacles to active travel.
• Identify safe and unsafe elements around the school.
• Learn about the pedestrian and cycling facilities around the school.
• Help children develop their autonomy in their neighborhoods.

Duration of activity : Minimum 60 minutes, ideally 90 minutes.

Learning situation for Cycle Two of secondary school, as part of the Ethics and Religious Culture course or French, language of instruction.

Links with the Quebec school curriculum :

Cross-disciplinary skills

• Intellectual skills: exercising critical judgment; creative thinking
• Methodological skills: develop effective work methods;
• Personal and social skills: structuring one's identity; cooperation;
• Communication skills: communicate appropriately;

General training areas

• Health and well-being: encourage students to take responsibility for their health and safety by adopting healthy lifestyles;
• Environment and consumption: encourage students to maintain a dynamic relationship with their environment, while maintaining a critical distance from the consumption and exploitation of the environment;
• Media: encourage students to develop a critical, ethical and aesthetic approach to the media, and to produce media documents that respect individual and collective rights.

Objectives : 

• Question the place and influence of car advertising in our society
• Focus on active transportation, sustainable transportation and the transportation cocktail.
• Create an active transportation awareness campaign.

Duration of activity : Four (4) 75-minute teaching periods

During this activity, young people create a postcard to invite a loved one (parent, sibling, friend, etc.) to use an active mode of transportation for a trip.

Objectives : 

• Teach children the benefits of active movement.
• Encourage the child to talk to an adult about the benefits of walking or cycling as a means of getting around.

Duration of activity : Approx. 90 minutes.

Each morning, students color a leaf-shaped paper cut-out with the color associated with the means of transportation they used to get to school, and glue it around a large tree trunk. Over time, this collective craft will become a large mural.

Objectives : 

• Evaluate the proportion of students using active transportation to get to school.
• Encourage students to experiment with active transportation to achieve the greenest tree possible.

Duration of activity : One to two weeks.

The Cycliste averti program offers you a range of self-service tools to help your students learn to ride a bike.

Tools and activities :

The idea is to organize a one-off, rallying activity to raise awareness among the entire school community of the importance of active travel to and from school.
This activity can take various forms, for example:

• Organize a "My school, on foot, by bike" day where all students are invited to actively get to school; ;
• Establish a car-free perimeter around the school for one day; ;
• For schools with a high proportion of school bus travel, have students disembark 1 km from the school.

Objectives : 

• Encourage participants to opt for more active modes of transportation when commuting to and from school.
• Promote active transportation within the school and convey safety messages when walking.

Duration of activity : Typically, the activity lasts one day. However, it could stretch over a week, or even become repetitive (for example, I'm walking on Tuesdays, or Let's get active on the first Friday of the month).

A bike bazaar is a rallying event where parents are invited to come and sell their child's outgrown bike for a small fee. In this way, other students will be delighted to be able to buy a used bike in their size.

Objectives : 

• To enable students to sell, buy or exchange their bikes, and thus benefit from a «new» bike in their size.
• Can be a fundraiser for the school if parents are asked in advance to donate their child's bike to be purchased by another parent. For example, the money could be used to buy a bike rack for the school.

Duration of activity : About two hours.