Educators who wish to teach water safety to their students (with or without a swimming pool or even a rubber ducky) may find these resources helpful.
American Red Cross Water Safety Curricula
The American Red Cross offers several courses and presentations that can be adapted for kids and the classroom.
Longfellow’s WHALE Tales
A water safety educational packet for K through 6th grade kids in the classroom, not the pool. (WHALE is an acronym for water habits are learned early). The program is designed to help 5 to 12 year olds make good decisions in and around the water. It consists of 11 lessons:
- Swim as a Pair Near a Lifeguard Chair
- Be Cool, Follow the Rules
- Look Before You Leap
- Think so You Don’t Sink
- Reach or Throw, Don’t Go
- Don’t Just Pack It, Wear Your Life Jacket
- Think Twice Before Going Near Cold Water or Ice
- Know About Boating Before You Go Floating
- Too Much Sun Is No Fun
- In Your House and in Your Yard, Watch for Water and Be on Guard
- Wave, Tide, or Ride, Follow the Guide
Each lesson has a lesson plan, subject-matter fact sheets, activity pages, poster, and an illustrative video segment on DVD. To read more about this program, check out the Longfellow’s WHALE Tales fact sheet.
Water Safety Today and Water Safety Presentations
Red Cross water safety presentations allow you to present general water safety information to older students and community groups. Chief among these presentations is Water Safety Today, a 2-hour general water safety lecture used to give a water safety orientation to foster parents and day care workers with access to the water.
Other presentations in this collection are 30-minute lectures on the following subjects:
- General Water Safety
- Home Pool Safety
- Rip Current Safety
- Sun Safety
- Parent Orientation to Red Cross Swimming Lessons
Aquatic Leader
The Aquatic Leader program consists of a 2-hour orientation to certify educators and others to present Longfellow’s WHALE Tales and Water Safety Presentations and to submit course records to the Red Cross. There are no prerequisites for this orientation. Aquatic Leader Administrative Information has additional information about this program.
You can request an Aquatic Leader training by completing the Water Safety Guy Training Request Form.
Water Safety Instructor (WSI)
The WSI course is a 30+ hour course that prepares you to teach the American Red Cross swimming and water safety courses and programs. With a WSI certificate, you can teach the programs listed above, other water safety courses, and Red Cross swimming lessons. To enroll in this course, you must be at least 17 years of age; able to swim the front crawl, back crawl, elementary backstroke, sidestroke, breaststroke, and butterfly; and able to tread water and back float for 1 minute each.
For more information about WSI, read the Water Safety Instructor (WSI) fact sheet.
Other Resources for Educators
The following are additional resources to teach water safety and drowning prevention:
- Boater Education Resources (Texas Parks and Wildlife)
- How to Teach Water Safety Without a Pool (WikiHow)
- Lesson Plans on Safety Topics, including Water Safety (TeacherVision)
- Safe Lane Swimming-Lane bumpers
- Safe Passage Teacher’s Guide (US Army Corps of Engineers)
- Teacher’s Corner (The ZAC Foundation)
- Water/Pool Safety Videos (WatchKnowLearn)
- Water Safety by KidsHealth in the Classroom
- Water Safety Lesson Plan (Teachers.net)
