Polk County Public Health’s Sarah Reese and Kristin Fagerlund are teaching students at Highland Elementary and Cathedral school to be safe when near or crossing the road. Reese said a number of organizations created the four-part curriculum called Walk!Bike!Fun! “Walk, Bike Fun, was developed by the Minnesota Bicycle Association, along with MnDOT, the Minnesota Department of Health, and a variety of other partners,” said Reese. “I believe the Blue Cross was a part of that partnership as well. The Walk, Fun curriculum is four 30-minute learning opportunities. It is geared up to grade three.”
Students learn about everything they should be aware of when crossing the street such as visual barriers explains Reese. “Today we talked about visual barriers being cars, trees, shrubs, garbage cans, etc.,” said Reese. “And how to safely navigate the road, traffic and crossing the street when there are visual barriers. We will be back next week to talk about safely checking, stopping, looking left-right-left, listening and crossing when it’s safe.”
