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Description

Help the Beavers investigate what makes journeys around their local community safe or unsafe. They will look at the area around the meeting place, identify potential hazards and begin deciding what their Community Impact project could do to make journeys safer for children.

Resources

Large sheet/s of paper or flipchart paper
Marker pens
Sticky notes if available
Clipboard/paper and pencil for each adult group
Hi-vis jackets or tabards if available
Torches if required because of poor light
Phone/camera for leaders to record useful observations
First aid kit

Instructions

Preparation Before the meeting:
- Plan a short walking route around the immediate local area.
- Avoid unnecessarily busy roads or complicated crossings.
- Identify suitable crossing points in advance.
- Check whether it will be dark during the activity.
- Ensure sufficient adults are available to supervise small groups.
- Brief adults about the purpose of the activity before leaving.
- Complete/update the appropriate risk assessment for an activity away from the normal meeting place.

Activity plan
1. Opening game – Stop, Look, Listen! Time: 10 minutes
Play a simple active game based on road safety.
One leader calls out instructions while the Beavers move around the hall:
- Green – walk
- Amber – slow down
- Red – stop
- Stop, Look, Listen – freeze, look left and right and listen
- Car coming – step back from the imaginary kerb
- Safe to cross – walk carefully to the other side
After a few minutes, allow individual Beavers to call the instructions.
Briefly ask: “What should we do before crossing a road?”
Use this to introduce or reinforce the Green Cross Code.

2. Introduce the Community Detective challenge - Time: 5 minutes
Remind the Beavers about the Community Impact project introduced at the previous meeting.
Explain:
“Tonight we're becoming Community Detectives. We're going to investigate the area around where we meet and look for things that make journeys safe and things that might make them more difficult or dangerous.”
Ask them to look for:
- Safe places to cross
- Busy roads
- Cars blocking pavements or views
- Narrow pavements
- Cycle routes
- Road signs and crossings
- Street lighting
- Places where drivers might struggle to see children
- Places where children might struggle to see traffic
- Anything they think is particularly safe
- Anything they think could be improved
Explain that they are not judging drivers or approaching members of the public. They are simply observing their surroundings.

3. Community Detective walk Time: 20–25 minutes
Ask Beavers and Leaders to put on hi-vis jackets and divide the Beavers into small groups with a leader.
Go out together and take a short planned walk around the streets immediately surrounding the meeting place.
Give each group a simple mission:
Find:
- 3 things that help keep people safe
- 3 things that could make a journey less safe
- 1 thing they would change if they were in charge
Adults can make notes or take photographs where appropriate.
Encourage the Beavers to explain why they think something is safe or unsafe.
Useful questions include:
- “Could a small child see the traffic from here?”
- “Could a driver easily see us?”
- “Where would you choose to cross?”
- “What would make this safer?”
- “Would you feel safe cycling here?”
- “Would this be different when it is dark?”
The walk should focus on observation rather than crossing lots of roads unnecessarily.

4. Create our Safe Journey Map Time: 15 minutes
Back at the meeting place, draw a very simple map of the local area on a large sheet of paper.
Ask each group to add what they found.
Use two types of marker or sticky note:
SAFE / GOOD Examples:
- Pedestrian crossing
- Wide pavement
- Good street lighting
- Clear road signs
- Cycle path

COULD BE SAFER Examples:
- Difficult place to cross
- Poor visibility
- Cars blocking the view
- Busy junction
- Narrow pavement

Ask: “What did we notice most?”
Then ask: “If Beavers could do one thing to help children make safer journeys, what could we do?”
Write their suggestions around the map.
Do not choose the final action immediately unless there is a very obvious favourite. The ideas can be used to decide the next stage of the Community Impact project.

5. Closing reflection Time: 5 minutes
Sit the Beavers together and ask three quick questions:
- “Tell me one thing that helps make a journey safe.”
- “Tell me one thing we spotted that could be safer.”
- “What could Beavers do to help?”
Finish with:
“Tonight we found out what is happening in our community. Our next challenge is to decide what we are actually going to do about it.”

Safety
Beavers must remain with their allocated leader group throughout the walk.
Leaders should choose all crossing points and supervise road crossings.
Children should not:
- Step into the road to investigate something
- Approach drivers or members of the public
- Photograph identifiable members of the public
- Touch vehicles, road signs or roadside objects
- Enter private property
- Use hi-vis clothing where available, particularly once evenings become darker.
- Leaders should model safe road-crossing behaviour throughout the activity.

Tags

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Badge Links

• Adventure - Green Cross Code
• Community Impact - Identify
• Safety - Green Cross Code