Students from Cedar Springs Elementary School in House Springs recently learned about stranger danger, playing safely and navigating city streets.
The children learned those lessons through their participation in the St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s Safety Street program.
Principal Morgan Goewert said the program was revived following a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This has honestly been one of the best (programs), and it’s totally free,” Goewert said. “We are the first school to have the program since the closure. Our kids sometimes don’t get to go and see things outside of our little community, so I absolutely love getting as many outreach programs as I can.”
For an hour, one classroom at a time walked through the Safety Street cityscape, which included mechanical cars, trains and stoplights.
Goewert said the immersive, interactive program helps teach students about the dangers they may encounter on the street and how best to protect themselves.
“There were a couple of features that we tailored basically to the kids in our community so they could visualize themselves in it a little bit more,” Goewert said. “We opted to pick some items that had a more country style. (For example) the Amtrak is a little bit closer to the kids, so they would probably be more familiar with the Amtrak line rather than the Metro (Transit).”
Goewert said the program features two curriculums – one for kindergarteners through second graders focused on pedestrian safety, stray animal safety, stranger training and bicycle safety and another for third through fifth graders focused on home safety, water safety, sports and playground safety, car safety, trunk entrapment and pedestrian safety.
“(The students) absolutely loved the immersive part of it, even the big kids,” Goewert said. “I was more concerned about the older kids being interested in it, but all the content is relatable to them. They even got little goodies and giveaways from St. Louis Children’s Hospital.”
Goewert said program instructors began setting up the cityscape on Oct. 20. On Oct. 23, the crew walked through the streets to ensure everything functioned properly.
“There’s a lot of sound and mechanics and lights that go into it because they’re operating streetlight and the train on the track moves,” she said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to it.”
Goewert said Safety Street packed up and left on Oct. 26, after three days of instruction.
She said Cedar Springs teachers appreciated the program as a supplement to their own instruction.
“The teachers thought it was a very appropriate program for us,” she said. “It’s something we don’t talk about necessarily – we don’t have time to talk about it in school – but it’s content the kids need to know. They are happy to take time out of their classroom to get this information for the kids.”
Goewert said she’s looking forward to inviting St. Louis Children’s Hospital back next year to teach the Safety Street program to incoming students and to teach current students new safety tips.
“(St. Louis Children’s Hospital) have been absolutely wonderful,” she said.