Be Bright Resource Pack Ideas

Here are some activity ideas to accompany our Be Bright Resource pack.

1. Pack of fluorescent materials:
Fluorescent materials show up in daytime and show up REALLY well when daylight is fading. They are special bright colours (not just yellow).

Q: How many different fluorescent colours can you see in this pack?

2. Pack of reflective materials:
Reflective materials show up at night. They reflect the light from car headlights. Some of reflective materials are also fluorescent so they show up day, dusk and night. 

Q: Can you find the materials in this pack that are both fluorescent and reflective?

3. Bright Tube Experiments:
You will need: a poster tube, a piece of white paper, sellotape or rubber band. From your pack you will need: mini torch, small pieces of reflective material, small piece of fluorescent material.

(a) What is Reflective?
Put one end of the tube on top of a piece of reflective material which is on a flat surface (table, chair or floor). Shine the torch through the other end and look inside. Q: What can you see?
The darkness of the tube is like night and the torch is like car headlights so this shows how reflective materials show up at night.

Q: What do you see if you look in without shining the torch? This is like night time when there are no car headlights. What does reflective material need to make it show up at night?

Q: Now put the reflective material on a table without the tube and shine the torch onto the reflective material. This is like a sunny day. Is the reflective material as bright as when you shone on it through the dark tube? This shows how reflective materials don’t work as well in daytime as they do at night.

(b) What is Fluorescent?
To see how fluorescent materials work really well we need to make the inside of the tube like misty, dull or fading daylight (dusk). Place a piece of A4 white paper over and around one end of the tube to cover it. Hold the covered end of the tube up to the light (eg sunny window or a torch); this makes the inside of the tube dull but not dark. Look through the other end making sure your face doesn’t touch the tube (or it will block out too much of your ‘dull’ light). Now place a small piece of fluorescent fabric at the end of the tube on the inside of the white paper (but not covering all the paper).
 
Q: Can you easily see the fluorescent material?
Now repeat using different materials: dark paper, bright coloured paper, reflective material, comparing each to fluorescent material.
Q: Which shows up best in ‘dusk’? If you are out in poor daylight, dark colours are the worst to wear, bright colours are better and fluorescent colours are best. Reflective materials don’t show up well in daylight or near dusk.

(c) Test the Reflectors
Look at the two rigid reflectors in the pack. Which one will show up at night? Which one will show up day, dusk AND night? Try the ‘bright tube’ experiment on them. Find the fluorescent and reflective parts of the bookbag. If you have other ‘high vis’ products point to the parts that show up after dark and the parts that show up in daytime.

4. Display:
Create a display for your school about how to be seen and why it is important. Use materials from the pack and information from the catalogue to help with your message: ’fluorescent for day, reflective for night’. Use the mini waistcoat and label the different materials on it. Remember to show lots of different fluorescent colours.

5. Collage:
Create a large collage of two people; one in dark clothes and one with ‘high vis’. You can use this as part of your display. Label the fluorescent parts and reflective parts and show which bits show up in daytime and which at night.

6. Be Bright - Why, When and How?
Discuss why it’s good to be bright… drivers can see you three seconds sooner if you wear high vis. Highlight that it’s not just for night but daytime too, especially if daylight is poor (rain, mist, twilight, low bright setting sun). It’s important all year (we have dull days in summer) but especially in winter when you walk home from school as it’s starting to get dark. It doesn’t have to be fluorescent yellow…look at the material samples to see different fluorescent colours. Other colours can be brighter, eg pink in the countryside (it is the best contrast with colours in nature especially in autumn) or orange lifejackets at sea (contrasts with grey and blue of water). It doesn’t have to be a waistcoat…look at the catalogue for different ‘high vis’ things you can wear or carry. What other ideas do you have? Do you think it is important that it looks good? Who wears ‘high vis’ for their job?

7. Seasonal Ideas:
Make Halloween decorations out of the reflective materials to hang from your costume so you can ‘Be Seen at Halloweeen’.

Use the materials to make colourful Christmas tree decorations or other festival decorations.

8. School Mascot:
Use the Mini High Vis Waistcoat for your school mascot, for a Walking Bus teddy mascot or on a display board.

9. Sticker Designs:
Use the blank circle stickers in the pack to design a fluorescent sticker for your bag. Plan your design first on plain white paper. (For a class, the sticker sheet will need to be cut up first so each child can work on their own sticker). Put your stickers on bags or coats (not shirts or jumpers) so they will be seen when you are outside. When you walk home later see how your classmates’ stickers show up really well from a distance.

10. Stick on Reflectors:
Look at the sheet of stick-on reflectors. Copy the outline of the shapes onto plain paper. Choose a theme, eg cycling, Walking Bus, scary monsters, skateboarding.
Create a design on white paper for printing on the reflector sheet. Use thin lines rather than big dark areas so you can still see plenty of the material. (If you want a favourite design to be printed (100 or more) then ask us about price). Think about where you would put these and when they would help you to be seen.

10. Competition:
Hold a poster competition with the theme: fluorescent for day, reflective for night. Use an item from this pack as a prize, eg the bookbag when you have used the other items.

11. Website:
Take photos of your work, activities and write a ‘Be Bright’ project report for your school website. (We’d love to know what you are doing too for our new ‘Who’s Bright’ section of our website www.brightkidz.co.uk. We may publish some of your report and a good quality photo if it is emailed to us and has permission of parents and the photographer).

Younger Children (age 3-5)
1.Create one large or several individual collages with the simple message ‘Be Bright’, rather than ‘fluorescent for day, reflective for night’. Use both kinds of material and prepare by drawing an outline of a person (tip: draw in all facial features beforehand otherwise the children may make these high vis instead of the clothing!)
2.Teddy’s Walk: Get two teddies; one in the waistcoat and one without. Take the teddies for a walk outside: split the group so half the children go with teddy and half stay to see how bright one is as he goes away. Swap the groups round and repeat. Works best on a dull day!!
3.Talk about jobs and uniforms; why does a police officer, lollipop man/lady or builder wear bright colours?
4.Link in with road safety theme so children understand being bright helps them to be safe but doesn’t protect them from traffic.

Older Children (age 11+)
1.Be more adventurous with the craft materials: Use the fabric pieces to trim a dark bag, hat or scarf. Try sewing a ‘high vis scrunchy’ for girl’s hair using a piece of elastic and the materials.
2.Science. Look at the two types of reflective material – silver grey (which is made from tiny glass beads) and plastic (called encapsulated microprismatic). Read the ‘science bits’ in the catalogue. Cut a piece of the plastic tape sample open so you can see two layers. Can you see tiny ‘microprisms’? These are designed to bounce light around and straight back to the source (called ‘retroreflection’). The tape needs a white background so it can bounce the light back out.


www.brightkidz.co.uk 01536 454994.