As a parent, your top priority is to keep your child safe. By the time your little one has reached the toddler and preschool years, they’re ready to start learning simple safety habits. When your child has a basic, age-appropriate understanding of safety, they can explore the world around them with greater confidence and independence.
5 Fun Safety Activities for Preschoolers
In the past, safety lessons for children often emphasized caution by focusing on potential dangers. While this approach had its merits, we believe a more positive and empowering method can offer even greater benefits. Safety activities for preschoolers and toddlers can – and should – be both fun and engaging, while also building their confidence.
While there are many different situations you may wish to prepare your child for, it’s good to start with the basics: road safety, fire safety, home safety, and personal safety.
1. Red Light, Green Light
Many parents of toddlers and preschoolers identify road safety as their top safety concern for their children. Turn learning into play with a classic game of Red Light, Green Light! Teaching your child what streetlights mean early on will help them stay safe while out on a walk. Our favorite tip is to play with circles cut out from colored paper – add a yellow circle to teach your child about yellow lights, too.
2. Look Both Ways
Crossing the street safely is a skill every child needs to practice. Until your child is old enough to cross the street alone, set a rule that they never cross the street on their own. Until then, hold hands and cross the street together. Demonstrate stopping at the edge of the curb, looking both ways, and then safely crossing when the street is clear or they see the walk signal.
3. Stop, Drop, and Roll
There’s a good reason why this is a classic safety activity for preschoolers – it’s a blast! Preschoolers and toddlers have lots of energy, and they love active games. Once your little one has gotten a hang of the movements, surprise them with this game during downtime by calling out “fire drill!” and let them practice the motions. If they know the routine by heart in a playful setting, they’ll remember it in an emergency.
4. Safety Scavenger Hunt
Home safety covers everything from the kitchen to the living room, including poison awareness. Create a scavenger hunt where your child identifies items that aren’t safe to touch—like stovetops, cleaning supplies, knives, or electrical cords. As they cross things off the list, explain the risks to them in language they will understand.
5. Stranger Safety
While you don’t want to make your child fearful of every new person they meet, you want them to be skeptical of strangers and comfortable trusting their instincts. Use flashcards, storybooks, or role-play scenarios to help your child understand the difference between safe strangers, like police officers or teachers, and unfamiliar people they should avoid.
Other Important Safety Activities for Preschoolers
Depending on your family’s lifestyle or location, you may want to explore other learning opportunities for your child. For example:
- Weather Preparedness: If you live somewhere that’s prone to hurricanes, earthquakes, or other natural disasters, we recommend age-appropriate disaster preparedness.
- Pet Safety: If you live in a rural area or have pets, it’s a good idea to teach animal safety.
- Water Safety: If you live near or often visit the water, teaching your child water safety is essential.
Lightbridge Academy is a Safe Space for Children
At Lightbridge Academy, we treat the safety of every child in our care with the utmost importance. Our private preschool programs are a safe place for preschoolers and toddlers to learn, grow, and explore. Lightbridge Academy’s Seedlings® Early Child Education Curriculum does more than teach your child age-appropriate academics; we nurture the whole child, and that includes teaching them safety skills that will serve them throughout childhood. We believe every preschooler deserves a strong foundation, built on both care and confidence.
Learn more about Lightbridge Academy when you schedule a tour today.
