Use craft activities to teach young children how to properly and safely cross a road. Use construction paper to create an overhead view of a crosswalk. Use a piece of green construction paper as the base and glue two strips of black paper onto the green to create two intersecting streets. Use chalk to create road lines, including a crosswalk. Make small paper people and cut them out. Use tape to attach them to the scene. Have children explain the proper procedure for crossing a street and move the figures across the street.
Another craft to teach crossing a street is to create a "stop" and "go" sign out of a paper plate. Write "stop" on one side and "go" on the other. Attach a craft stick to the bottom. Use the sign to demonstrate proper street crossing techniques.
Teach children the importance and meaning of various signs they may encounter when trying to cross the street. Create flash cards with various signs displayed on them. Include a stop sign, traffic light displaying red, another showing yellow and another displaying green. Also include a "Walk" sign in the flashcards. Have the children stand about 20 feet away and hold up various signs they must follow. For instance, when you hold up the red traffic light, children must stop. When you hold up the green light, they can move any way they choose.
Teach children to stop, look and listen before crossing a street using hand motions. Hold your hand with palm facing the children and fingers pointing up to signify "stop." Pretend to shield your eyes from the sun for "look" and hold a hand to your ear for "listen." Have kids stand in a line as the leader shouts out one of the three directives (stop, look, listen). The kids have to perform the corresponding hand gesture. Increase the speed of shouting out the directives and see if the kids can keep up.
Teach children how to properly cross a street through imaginative play activities. Set up a pretend street for small die-cast cars and small people figures. Have the children pretend to be the cars as you demonstrate how to properly move the people across the street.
Another way to demonstrate proper street crossing is to have the children create a car out of a cardboard box. Cut the bottom out so the kids can walk and hold the box around themselves to resemble a car. Have some students pretend to be cars while others pretend to be pedestrians crossing a pretend street. Stress to the "cars" that the goal is to stop and let pedestrians cross. Emphasize to the pedestrians to stop, look both ways, listen for cars and safely cross the road.
Other activities to teach children how to cross a street include creating flash cards that have the rules written on them for children to learn and review. You might also have children make up a song or rhyme that helps them remember how to cross the street safely.