Committee for Children Blog

Support Tree: Who’s Safe to Ask for Help—Activity

friendship making activity

Grades EL–3

When it comes to personal safety, children need to know who to go to for help, particularly if they’re having a problem with someone touching their private body parts. Whether it be a parent, teacher, neighbor, or an adult family friend, identifying who’s a safe person to go to in a time of need is important and can help kids be confident in uncertain situations.

In this free activity, which has been adapted from the Child Protection Unit, teachers, parents, and guardians help students name the people in their lives who they can go to when something’s not quite right.

Download and Print

Preparation

  • On an 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper, print this PDF or an outline of a leafless tree and pass them to your students (one per student)
  • Give students, or have them cut out, leaves on which they will write their names

free activity, support tree, social emotional learningInstructions

Addressing the class, give examples of scenarios that may be unsafe and that should be reported to a trusted adult. These can be

– A stranger with a cute puppy calling you over

– A family member touching your body in a way that makes you uncomfortable

– An adult or other child showing their private body parts to you

Then, discuss with your students who they might be able to talk to. Afterward,

  • Have students list the names of adults they can go to for help
  • Glue the names to the branches of their trees

This is an excellent activity to send home with your students so they can share with their parents to help add names to the tree.

Like This Activity?

We’re adding more K–8 classroom activities to our Free Activities page all the time. They’re easy to find—just visit cfchildren.org/resources/free-activities/ for grade-specific, K–8 classroom activities that align with our Second Step Suite.


Learn more about social-emotional learningresearch on the topic, and how it benefits students in the classroom, at home, and in their lives.