You'll need about 20 volunteers, so start recruiting early, like at Back-to-School night.
You could ask the school janitor to blow or hose down the schoolyard blacktop a few days before your event, but it's probably not a disaster if that doesn't happen.
Ask the teachers to divide their students into five groups the day before the event; you might provide name tags identifying the groups (color or letter, numbers may be confusing - or not? "Group 1 starts the day at station 1, Group 2 at station 2 etc.")
You could ask the teachers to convey these instructions to the participating students:
How are you going to announce the end of a shift? A bullhorn is best, but lacking that a whistle or a gong or someone with a loud voice? Maybe discuss with teachers, try to keep distractions for other classrooms to a minimum.
It's fifteen minutes per station, including the move between stations.
If you don't have a diagram of previous placing of the stations at
your school, try to set it up so that the students don't have to go far
to the next station.
The station leader will begin the introduction when the students are
gathered at the start;
only the helmet fitting doesn't have an introduction, so if you cannot
have the stations in a circle but they are in a line, then you could
position the helmet fitting at the beginning of your stations sequence.
If your stations are in a line and not in a circle, then have the
Helmet Fitting at the start of the line, for it doesn't matter that it
will take a few minutes to this station. Helmet Fitting is just a few
tables.
Try to
flow
sequence
Be on the lookout for bottlenecks and delays. For instance, at the
driveway station I've often seen the policeman waiting for the next
kid to move up to him: if he or she is standing next to him as soon as
the previous one is seen off every time, more kids will get a chance
to bike through the station again.
Ten seconds lost for each student in a group of twelve adds up to two
minutes that could have been used to give the kids intensive biking
experience.
Have the cars in the Driveway Station park like in a real street, in the correct direction. (At my son's event, the police officer asked us to turn our car around: that was no fun and not without danger during recess, and a waste of valuable time, but who can refuse a policeman?)
Volunteers at station starts:
Try to put as many students through as possible, it helps if they can
ride the course two or three times. Don't waste time having them
move up while the station leader is waiting: have the next student
ready for the station leader as soon as the previous one starts
riding.
If students are sharing a bike, don't put those kids next in line to each other but like three or four bikes apart.
Let students without bikes or helmets walk through the stations, it will teach them something; discourage scooters and rollerblades, for bike traffic rules do not apply to them. Bikes are like cars in traffic, while the law sees riders of scooters and rollerbladers as pedestrians.
Try to find a map that shows the layout of the stations on your
schoolyard from previous years; make a new layout if that's not
available or if it didn't work out well last year. Study campus map
for available space, look for existing lines on the blacktop; plan
station starting points not too far from each other, so students can
move to the next station quickly.
Only Helmet Fitting does not have an introductory talk, so if you
can't make a circle, make Helmet Fitting the first station of the the
line. Also set up stations so that groups of students waiting at their
station don't mingle with other groups.
Save your map for next year!
Use 'old' station layout graphics as a definitive reference, some of the newer diagrams are incorrect in details.
Try to use existing white lines on your schoolyard, but don't put tape on them. (The tape might rip up the white cover.)
Set chalk marks at the edges of the station layouts, and also in the middle of the 70-ft lines of the Controlled Riding and Moving Left stations. (I thought of paint marks for use in years to come, but 1. the teachers said the school doesn't allow and 2. the spray can of asphalt paint I looked at said it would last less than a year.)
Attach end of blue tape to pavement in desired spot and direction, have someone step on it while someone else unrolls the tape to the next chalk mark, pull it tight gently (don't break the tape), and bring it down to the pavement and attach; now both step on the tape or gently slide feet over it to press it to the asphalt for attachment; or have children helpers do that, they can also ride their bikes over it.
Circle segments are best drawn with chalk.
Don't connect tape at corners, to reduce mishaps.If some tape comes loose, not everything is gone.
Why blue masking tape?
I don't have much experience here with either the beige masking tape or
silver duct tape; but I would be afraid that the beige masking tape
might break more easily than the blue tape, and then cleanup might turn
into a real problem; and I would be afraid that duct tape sticks too
well to the asphalt and you'll rip up part of the blacktop at cleanup.
Another disadvantage of the duct tape is that you'll need to carry
scissors to cut it.
Be careful NOT to grab tape 'for delicate surfaces,' for even a gust
of wind will blow it away.
1½" tape is fine, 2" is also good, just what is available or cheapest.
Many thanks to longtime setup veteran Jeff Whitnack for his comments. Jeff was already working with Kathy on the Bike Safety Day years before the present crop of third-graders were born.
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