It was Sunday morning and Zara, Kristina, Tom, Zach and Danny had arranged to meet at the park.

 

Danny was walking to the park with his dad as it was a lovely sunny day.  Today they were walking a different way to the park, as first they were taking Danny's clothes which he had outgrown to the local charity shop.

 

  

The charity shop wasn't too far and Danny's family regularly donated things they no longer needed so that they could be re-used.  Danny had a big bag of clothes and shoes this time.

 

After donating Danny's clothes and shoes at the charity shop, Danny and his dad walked towards the pedestrian crossing. 

Danny's dad had been reminding Danny why pedestrian crossings are important for everyone to understand.  Going this way they would need to cross at the pedestrian lights to reach the park.

Danny and his dad arrived at the pedestrian lights. 

 

Danny eagerly pressed the button and stood back and waited for the green light to come on.

 

Danny's dad explained that a pedestrian crossing is a safety system which helps people cross the road safely and the traffic lights are a very important part of the pedestrian crossing.

 

 

"When the green light comes on you must remember not to immediately start crossing," explained Danny's dad.

 

 

 

"It's important to wait on the pavement for the green light to come on first, and then check that the traffic coming from both directions has stopped.  Only then is it safe to cross."

 

"I always check to see if the traffic has stopped before crossing," said Danny proudly. "When I cross with mom she let’s me be the PCC."

"What's a PCC?" asked Danny's dad.

"It's a Pedestrian Crossing Champion," replied Danny.  “Mom waits for me to press the button and tell her

when I think it’s safe for us both to cross."

"That's good," said Danny's dad.  "We have to remember that pedestrian crossings can be quite dangerous if we start rushing to cross and are not paying attention."

 

Just then Danny's dad's mobile phone started ringing.

"Dad, your phone’s ringing," said Danny, "aren't you going to answer it?"

 

"I'm going to leave my phone in my pocket until we have safely crossed the road," explained Danny's dad.  "If I answer my phone now, I'm going to get distracted and I don't want to lose my concentration whilst we cross the road."
    

"You’re right dad," said Danny thoughtfully. "By looking at your phone and talking on your phone you won't be able to concentrate completely on crossing the road safely."

The green button started flashing and both Danny and his dad checked to see if traffic from both directions had stopped.

 

"Is it safe to cross, PCC?" asked dad.

 

"It sure is dad!" replied Danny.

 

While they were both crossing, Danny said, "mom says it's important to walk and not to run when crossing the road."

 

"That's correct," replied dad.  "It's so important not to run when crossing the road.  Pedestrian crossings can be dangerous if care is not taken and people rush to cross the road."

 

 

 

Having crossed the road safely, Danny's dad took his phone out of his pocket.  

 

"It's Zara's dad's missed call," said Danny's dad, "they're probably wondering if we are coming as we are a bit late."

As Danny and his dad arrived at the park, they were just in time to join in with the warm ups. 

 

Tom, Kristina, Zara and Zach were about to begin their warm ups as they thought Danny was not coming.

 

"Wait for me!" shouted Danny as he ran over to join his friends.

 

"We thought you weren’t coming," explained Zara.  "My dad phoned your dad but he didn't answer his phone."

 

 

"Sorry I'm late," said Danny, "we were crossing at the pedestrian lights and talking about how important it is to cross safely.” 

 

Danny gave his friends high fives and said, “we did hear dad's phone ringing but dad didn't answer it as we needed to cross the road safely first."
   

 

"Well done to you both for not getting distracted by the phone ringing" said Zara's dad.  "There is nothing more important than crossing the road safely."

“Ccome on, let's do our warm ups before we start our rraces" said Kristina, stuttering.

The children got ready to start their warm ups which they really enjoy doing.  The warm ups are also good for their muscles.

 

 

“1 2 3 4 5 clap your hands and touch your toes,

6 7 8 9 10 turnaround and stretch your arms,

Let’s jog on the spot,

And be a robot,

Now that we’re all done,

It’s time to have some fun.”

After finishing their warm ups Tom said, “this race is to see who is the fastest runner.  Can you get us started please Zach?”

 

“Yes,” replied Zach, “are you all ready?”

 

“Not yet,” called Danny who needed to tie his laces. “I’m ready now!”

 

"Cool, on your marks, get set, GO!" instructed Zach and the children started running.

 

 

Danny won the race followed by Kristina, Zara and Tom.

 

 

 

Next it was the skipping race and all four children did such lovely skipping.  Zara came first followed by Tom, Kristina and Danny.

 

The children stopped to have their drinks and then played a cricket match.  Zach was getting really good at batting and was showing off his muscles!  

  

"Keeping active is fun” said Kristina's dad.  “I think that's enough for today though.”

"Yes!" agreed Zara's dad, sitting down to have a rest as he did most of the running.

 

Zach’s mom smiled and said “I think you children need to have showers when you get home.”

"Yes, I think so too,” agreed Tom's dad.

The children hugged each other and waved goodbye as they left the park with their parents.