Skill Building

It sounds funny, but kids need coaching when it comes to walking and cycling to school.

Caregiver Coaching Tools

• Active Transportation Milestones – ages 4-6
  • A set of milestones for caregivers teaching young children about walking and road safety.
• Active Transportation Milestones – ages 4-10
  • Milestones for caregivers teaching children up to age 10.
• Sidewalk Smarts – Passport (Printable)
  • The Sidewalk Smarts Passport is a set of skills you can practice with your child as they begin to navigate all kinds of crossings in their community. School routes are a great place to practice!
• There are three stages for each skill:
  • Your child can tell you what it means.
  • Your child can perform the skill.
  • Your child performs the skill all the time.
• Bike Helmet Fitting Step-by-Step Guide
  • Sick Kids Hospital’s guide is simple and straightforward.

Skill-building Videos

• Safe walking fundamentals
  • Teaches concepts around how to walk on and off the sidewalk, driveway safety, choosing a safe route, and safe clothing choices.
• Crossing fundamentals
  • Teaches concepts of basic crossing techniques and to use the stop, look, listen, think process. Also, covers adult supervision when crossing streets, and crossing in the dark or bad weather.
• Advanced crossing
  • Teaches concepts around crossing at a controlled intersection or marked crosswalk, and reiterates the importance of the stop, look, listen, think process.
• Traffic Chaos
  • Illustrates various driving decisions made in school zones and how they impact overall safety.
• Parking lot safety
  • Teaches concepts around parking lot safety highlighting the importance of listening to adults, being aware of surroundings, and applying safe crossing techniques.
• Bike helmet fitting
  • Teaches how to properly fit a child’s bike helmet. From CANBIKE Manitoba.
• Bike theft prevention
  • With a little more awareness, we can all help create a world where no one has to feel the pain of a stolen bicycle.
• Using bike boxes
  • This City of Guelph video shows us how those unusual green boxes at intersections work to protect cyclists. Note: young children should be supervised in advanced cycling settings like this.
• Railway crossings
  • Operation Lifesaver brings us this GIF that helps us talk through the signs and signals warning of a train crossing. This can also help you speak to your children about what they can expect at a railway crossing.
• Do-it-yourself bike rodeo
  • Appropriate for kids in Grade 1 – 6 who have mastered the basics of starting, stopping, balance and riding. This mini-version of the Ottawa Safety Councils Cyclesafe bike rodeo will allow your kids to practice in their own driveway!

Skill-testing Games

• Assess risks and choose routes
  • This game educates young children from ages 7 to 12 on basic road safety techniques. The game player is given different road safety scenarios of which they must make the correct decisions to win the game.
• Track your steps to school
  • Celebrate your steps to school with Hop! Log your walks to discover the positive impact walking has on the environment.