UNITED STATES COAST GUARD AUXILIARY
OPERATION BOAT SMART
BOAT SMART KIDS
Safe Boating Programs for your local schools
Equipment:
Boating Fun-Adventure on the Water Book, Life jackets for demonstration.
Overhead Transparencies of all pages you
wish to include from among Pages 4-14.
In the first, second and third grades, the objectives for kindergarten should still be stressed. However, more objectives can be added as listed below.
1. Learn to swim, swim with a buddy and preferably swim under adult supervision.
2. When taking equipment in a boat, load the boat so that the boat will remain balanced; seat the passengers in such a way that the boat will be balanced.
3. Take only equipment, which is really needed (this could be a discussion by itself!)
4. When riding in a boat, wear a Lifejacket, which fits tight and is brightly colored.
5. When riding in a boat, watch for things in the water that the boat could hit.
6. If the boat should capsize, stay with it, do not try to swim to shore.
7. If someone falls out of the boat, throw something to him/her, don’t jump in.
8. Drink sodas and water but not alcoholic beverages.
9. Don’t pollute the environment.
The conversation for kindergarten (previous page) about swimming with a buddy under
adult supervision can be used for any grade. It should progress much more quickly for
higher-grade levels. The demonstration with the life jacketsas described under the
kindergarten approach above can be used at all grade levels.
You might start by asking how many children’s parents have a boat. Some probably will. If so, ask them to describe the boat, how many people can ride in it and where they take the boat to ride in it. A brief discussion will be interesting to the others.
A long discussion will not! If no one owns a boat, you can pretend that you have friends who own a boat and that you really enjoy going for rides with them and know that the children would enjoy going on such a ride.
Second and third graders can do an exploratory activity with a plastic boat See Page 2 of
the K-3 text for a brief description.
Set the whole thing on a low table where the children can gather around and see the boat resting on the water. Ask if any of them have ever played with boats in a bathtub at home. Expect that some will answer yes!
Ask what happens when they put things inside the boat...they will tell you that if you put too much in, the boat will sink! Reaffirm that that is correct and that big boats that people ride in behave the same way. You can put some people and stuff in a big boat but if you put in too much, that big boat would sink too!
Give one of the children an object to place in the boat and ask him/her to carefully place
it in the boat. If the child places the object so that the boat is “balanced” compliment
him/her and discuss where this object can be placed in order to keep the boat balanced
and what placement would cause the boat to lean to one side or to roll over.
If the child places the object on one side and the boat “leans” to one side, ask why the boat is leaning to one side and how it might be “balanced.” Expect that they will say that the item has made the boat lean (the technical term is “list to one side”). Agree with them and let one of the children carefully move the item to the center so that the boat is again “balanced.”
Explain to them that boats that people ride in are the same. If all the people or all the stuff is on one side of the boat, it, too, will lean to one side, that people need to sit in a boat and place their equipment in it so that they keep the boat balanced. Additional weights can be added to the boat until it sinks.
When the boat finally sinks, ask the children what would happen to people riding in it. Expect they will answer that the people will fall out or that the people would end up in the water and would have to swim.
Point out that swimming can make you tired pretty fast and that people would be much safer if they were wearing a life jacket so they wouldn’t have to swim so hard if they ended up in the water.
Show how the boat looks when it has “capsized” and ask the children what to do if the
boat capsizes. Tell them to stay with the boat if it ever happens to them.
Talk to them about always wearing their life jacket when in the boat.
Talk about what to do if they fall overboard or if someone else does. Suppose with them
that they are going somewhere in the boat and someone falls overboard. Ask them what items they might have in a boat, which would float, and that they could throw to the person in the water.
Use the overhead transparencies of the Boating Fun-Adventure on the Water book pages to review the messages presented during this lesson.
An alternative activity is a boating adventure similar to the kindergarten boat ride but this one can have some adventure qualities as follows:
As above, seat the children together, perhaps on the floor. Set chairs or tables in such a
way as to define the edges of the boat.
Tell them how you are defining the boat and ask them to sit so that the boat will be balanced. Watch for them to sit so that, overall, the weight of the children is well distributed, i.e. fewer heavy children on one side and more lightweight children on the other side. As you look at the weight distribution, compliment them if they have done well and suggest alternates if they have a lot of weight in one place.
After students are seated, ask them what equipment to take in the boat if you will go on
an all-day picnic. Be accepting of most answers of food, water, maybe a blanket,
sunscreen, or whatever but be sure that they include life jackets.
Ask them how many life jackets to take and accept only the answer of one per person, emphasizing that each life jacket must fit the person for whom it is intended. Ask them to pretend to don their life jackets. Ask them to pretend to stow their food and beverages that they are bringing.
Tell them that an old local area captain has been recommended to run the boat. Tell them that ordinarily you wouldn't allow a stranger to operate the boat but that because he is well recommended, you have decided to go ahead and accept this person.
You can move the activity along a little by introducing the pretend-captain. Then ask the children whether this will be a motorboat or a sailboat. Go with whichever is the predominant answer.
Ask some of the children to be lookouts, to keep watch and to tell the Captain if there is anything in the water, which he must steer around. Ask the children what is bad about not watching carefully. Expect at least someone to answer that you might hit something.
You can now improvise with some ideas of story telling...where shall we go first, today,
you might ask? Accept various answers for the voyage and suggest going to a marina,
some distance away, to eat lunch. When the boat arrives at the destination, assign two
children to tie up the boat and to carefully help everyone to shore.
When you return from "lunch", assign someone to help everyone aboard and seat them to
balance the boat.
Someone has told you that they saw the Captain drinking beer with his
lunch. Ask what is bad about that? Ask whether they should allow the Captain to
continue operating the boat after having been drinking alcohol at lunchtime. Ask the
Captain about his having had beer for lunch. Pretend that he answers affirmatively. Tell
him that that is unacceptable and that you will need to take over the operation of the boat.
Ask some of the children to be lookouts for you. Cast off the lines and move out. Be sure that you make noises about getting underway. If this is a motorboat, everyone can make motorboat sounds and if this is a sailboat, everyone might blow!
Just then, look into the distance and ask your lookouts if that is a large ship you see in the distance. Sometimes at least one will answer yes. If not, you can insist that surely it is a big ship and you must be careful to stay away from it because your boat is small enough
that you could be run over by the large ship.
As you have everyone's attention held toward a particular place in the room where you
are looking at this boat in the distance, lurch forward suddenly and say,
“Oh, my goodness, we paid too much attention to that boat! We've hit something!"
Ask if everyone can swim.
Some will be able to and some will not! Tell them it's a good thing everyone has Life jackets on.
Notice that there is water coming into your boat. Ask one or two of the children to move their feet and try to get out of the way of the water.
Ask the children what might be used to plug up the hole. Accept their suggestions. Could be wedging a bucket in the hole, filling it with towels and clothing or anything that will stop the water from coming in so quickly. Compliment the children on having such good ideas.
More boat sounds are now in order to help the adventure along. Then you can breathe a
loud sigh of relief as you tell the children that you are approaching the dock. Have one or
two children get ready to get hold of the dock so everyone can get off safely. Let them
make boat sounds to bring the boat to the dock and then let them help each other to get
safely off the boat.
Ask the children what they have learned on the boating adventure. You can be accepting of anything reasonable that they learned but the things you want to be sure to hear and to emphasize are:
1. We should drink sodas or water and not alcoholic beverages while operating a
boat.
2. We should wear a life jacket just in case of a crisis where we need it.
3. We should always keep a lookout and not get distracted because if we
get distracted, we might hit something.
4. We should be sure to place ourselves and our equipment on the boat so that
the boat is balanced.
Sample lesson plans and information are provided for various age groups as follows:
Boat Smart Kids Instructors Guide
Boat Smart Kids Public Information Page
Boat Smart Kids Presentation Formats
www.ratlines.com Revised: 12/18/07