How do we stay safe at school?
Why do we need classroom rules?
How do our choices affect other people?
What does it mean to be responsible?
And how can we work together as a team?
Of course, we need to teach all of these things—but that doesn’t mean they have to become one more separate lesson to squeeze into an already packed school day!
One of my favorite ways to introduce these important conversations is through children’s literature.
And Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann is PERFECT for doing just that!
More Than a Fun Read-Aloud
Students love Officer Buckle and Gloria.
Officer Buckle takes safety VERY seriously, while Gloria finds a way to make his safety speeches much more entertaining!
The story is funny and engaging, but underneath all that humor are some pretty important messages about safety, rules, responsibility, friendship, and teamwork.
That makes it a wonderful book for the beginning of the school year.
Instead of simply reading the story and completing a comprehension worksheet, I wanted to create a resource that helps teachers use the book as the starting point for a full day of meaningful literacy and cross-curricular learning.
Students are reading, discussing, writing, thinking, and practicing important literacy skills—but they’re also learning how to become safe and responsible members of their classroom community.
That’s a win in my book!
Start the Day by Talking About RULES!
Before students ever hear the story, begin with something they already know a little about:
RULES!
Ask students:
Why do we have rules at school?
This simple question can lead to such a great beginning-of-the-year conversation.
Rules aren’t there just because teachers like making lists of things children can and cannot do.
Rules help us stay safe.
Rules help us learn.
Rules help us take care of one another.
And rules help our classroom run smoothly.
Students can think about different school rules, identify safe choices, and begin making connections to their own classroom experiences.
Now you’ve activated prior knowledge AND introduced the big idea behind the story before you’ve even opened the book!
Add a Classroom Poll—and Sneak in Some Math!
I love finding simple ways to connect literacy to other areas of the curriculum.
A classroom safety poll is an easy way to do that.
Give students several school rules or safe choices and ask them to vote for the one they think is most important.
Once everyone has voted, don’t stop there!
Use the results to practice counting, recording data, comparing numbers, and identifying which choice received the most or fewest votes.
One little activity has now combined speaking and listening, classroom community, safety, AND math.
Even better, you’re using real data that matters to your students!
Before Reading: Get Students Thinking
Before opening Officer Buckle and Gloria, spend a few minutes looking at the cover and making predictions.
Who might Officer Buckle be?
Who is Gloria?
What might they do together?
Why might a police officer visit a school?
What do students think the story will teach us?
This is also a great time to introduce important vocabulary students will hear in the story.
Now students have a purpose for listening.
During the Read-Aloud: Watch the Characters
As you read, encourage students to pay close attention to Officer Buckle AND Gloria.
How does Officer Buckle feel about safety?
How do the students react to his safety speeches?
What changes when Gloria joins him?
How do the illustrations help us understand something Officer Buckle doesn’t know?
And what happens when Officer Buckle discovers the truth?
There is SO much comprehension work tucked naturally into this story!
Students can explore character feelings, character change, cause and effect, important details, and the relationship between the words and illustrations without the lesson ever feeling like a worksheet.
After Reading: Dig a Little Deeper
Once you’ve finished the story, it’s time to revisit those predictions and talk about what students learned.
Students can identify the characters and setting, discuss the problem and solution, recall important events, explore cause and effect, and think about the author’s message.
One of the most important questions is:
What did Officer Buckle and Gloria learn?
This leads naturally to one of the biggest messages in the story:
Working together makes a good team!
And from there, you can bring the conversation right back to your classroom.
How can WE work together?
How can WE help keep one another safe?
How can OUR choices affect the people around us?
Now a comprehension discussion has become a classroom-community lesson, too!
Take the Story Into Writing
After all that talking and thinking, students have plenty to write about!
They can write about an important classroom rule, explain why a particular safety rule matters, create their own safety tip, or make a text-to-self connection.
For younger learners, drawing and simple sentence starters can provide the support they need.
More independent writers can explain their thinking and provide reasons for their choices.
I especially love having students create their own safety tips after reading the story.
Suddenly they’re not just remembering Officer Buckle’s rules—they’re applying what they’ve learned to their own lives.
Don’t Forget the Word Work!
The learning doesn’t have to stop with comprehension and writing.
The story also provides a fun springboard for literacy skills such as:
vocabulary, ABC order, syllables, word building, sentence work, and grammar.
These activities are perfect for extending the lesson into literacy centers, small groups, independent work, or another day.
And that’s important because you certainly don’t need to use every activity in one sitting!
Bring in Math, SEL & Safety
One of my biggest goals when updating my literacy resources has been to show teachers how much learning can grow from ONE great picture book.
With Officer Buckle and Gloria, the connections are especially natural.
Your literacy lesson can extend into math through polls, data collection, and number games.
It connects to SEL as students talk about responsibility, cooperation, teamwork, and how their choices affect others.
It connects to health and safety as children identify safe and unsafe behaviors and explain why rules are important.
And it can even move into art and fine-motor practice with drawing and craft activities.
Instead of teaching five completely separate lessons, we’re letting one wonderful story connect the learning throughout the day.
End the Day with an Official Safety Star!
I love ending a themed day with something children can take home and feel proud of.
After students have spent the day learning about rules, responsibility, teamwork, and safe choices, present each child with an:
OFFICIAL SAFETY STAR ⭐
It’s a simple way to celebrate everything they’ve learned while reinforcing the message one last time:
Safe choices matter. Rules have a purpose. And we all have a part in keeping our classroom safe!
One Book. So Much Learning!
That’s exactly what I love about teaching through children’s literature.
Officer Buckle and Gloria isn’t just a cute back-to-school read-aloud.
It can become the starting point for comprehension, vocabulary, writing, word work, math, SEL, classroom rules, safety, responsibility, teamwork, art, and classroom community.
And you don’t have to use everything!
Choose the core activities that work for your class, then use the additional pages for differentiation, literacy centers, small groups, morning work, early finishers, or additional days of learning.
The goal isn’t to give teachers more to fit into their day.
It’s to help us use the time we’re already spending on literacy to accomplish MORE meaningful learning.
And if students leave the lesson understanding a little more about reading AND a little more about taking care of themselves and one another?
I’d call that a pretty great day of learning!
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