Road sign activity

This is an admittedly fairly silly activity, as many of the items below are somewhat silly. Instead, you could look up actual road signs from countries (or your own country) that the students may not be familiar with, and use those. For example, students from hot, fairly flat equatorial countries may not be familiar with the kinds of signs one would see in snowy mountain areas of Europe or North America. Anyway, you will probably want to change these examples below. If you want to have students do brief presentations, then just give each group a few of the items, so that each group, when presenting, can show their work and ask the other students to first guess what their signs mean.

By the way, this was a short, just for fun lesson to fill some time; when I did it, it had little pedagogical rationale, so I discarded it. But it may be helpful for using descriptive words, and for talking about living in places unfamiliar to students. For example, do something with tornados, to introduce this North American weather phenomenon to foreign students, as they should be aware of tornados.

Road signs Choose one of the following situations and create several new road signs. For the situation, think about specific problems that require a new road sign and create several signs with specific warnings for those driving conditions. You will draw and explain your signs to the class (be sure to explain the situation, the particular problems, and why you created the signs as you have).

1. desert road (A): The hot road may pose dangers for car tires, and the high heat may be dangerous to some drivers. There are also dangerous animals at night like coyotes, and drivers should be careful not to hit some large cactus plants on the side of the road. There may also be high-speed chases on the roads involving coyotes and road-runners.

2. desert road (B): This is an area where alien spaceships like to land, which could be dangerous to drivers. There may also be aliens in the area, both friendly and unfriendly; they may look different, they may look just like humans, or may even be invisible.

3. country road: There may be dangerous animals in the area, especially for drivers who stop – wolves, coyotes, poisonous snakes, wildcats, etc. Also, there is a large prison nearby; occasionally, a prisoner may escape and may be trying to hitchhike along the side of the road.

4. mountain road: There may be dangerous animals in the area, especially for drivers who stop – wolves, coyotes, wildcats, etc. Some animals like deer may try to cross the road; hitting them can seriouly damage a car. Bears may also try to stop drivers to beg for food. Tough squirrel gangs may try to steal shiny objects (like car keys) from drivers.

5. jungle road: There may be dangerous animals in the area, especially for drivers who stop – poisonous snakes, large snakes like pythons and anacondas, gorillas, tigers, etc. Some plants along the roadside may be poisonous. Also, some plants along the road may be man-eating plants.

6. swamp road: The swamp may overflow and flood the road, making it very slippery, especially with moss and algae. There may be dangerous animals in the area, especially for drivers who stop – crocodiles, snakes, and piranhas in the water.

7. canyon road: The terrain is dangerous – drivers could fall over the edge into a river 100m below. During and after rainstorms, large rocks may fall from the mountains above. Nearby caves may contain bats, which swarm (fly around in large numbers) at night.

8. medieval England: There may be dragons and other monsters in the area, and knights on horseback trying to find or chase them. Witches may be flying around on brooms at night. Some monsters, known as troll, like to hide under bridges. If drivers stop, mysterious creatures (called gnomes) like to sneak into cars and steal or hide things.

9. urban road: Along the road there may be fast-food restaurants that sell greasy and fatty food; eating at those places can lead to obesity (being seriously fat), heart disease, many other health problems, and early death. There may also be psycho bus drivers and taxi drivers on the roads.

10. near-Arctic road: (for example, Canada, Alaska, Siberia, or near places near Antarctica) The weather may be dangerously cold for drivers and cars. The roads are sometimes built on icy areas, and the ice underneath the road may move or shift, creating dangerous road conditions. Gangs of polar bears or penguins may use tricks to stop drivers to rob them. Polar bears are much stronger but may be pacified with sodas (like Coca-Cola), while the penguins may be professional criminals armed with guns.

11. Midwestern US road: This area has relatively frequent tornados, which can be deadly for anyone outside or in a car. Drivers should take shelter with their cars under a bridge, overpass, or other strong structure. Pedestrians should take shelter inside a building; if there are no buildings nearby, they should take cover under a bridge or other strong structure, or in a ditch.