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Water Safety provides initiatives and resources to support students, schools and families be safe in, on and around water.
Des Swimmer safe in, on and around the water (reception to year 3)
We would like to introduce you to Des Swimmer, who presents water safety in, on and around the water in a fun, interactive way.
He’s an engaging, informative and entertaining character who in this series, brings the pool-based water safety, surf education and aquatic programs to students in reception to year 3. This is a foundation for the learning activities that students enjoy as they participate in the water safety program at the pool, beach, river and lake.
Des Swimmer will help the students learn and understand how to be safe in the many water environments at home and out and about.
Des checks that he’s safe in the sun, then heads to the beach, pool, and river. He paddles “on land” and then looks at the safety of the water around the home.
Des’ activities are versatile and accessible from home and in the classroom.
Join Des on his adventures and be ready for the water safety program with your class and friends to enjoy fun activities in, on and around the water.
Des Swimmer episode 01 – being safe in the sun
Des Swimmer episode 01 – being sun smart video transcript
Oh G'Day! It's Des Swimmer here. Yeah, I know I'm not at the pool but I'm glad I'm down the beach, what a fantastic day. But do you know what? The beach, while it can be lots of fun, it can be a bit of a dangerous place as well. Now the sun emits UV radiation which can be quite harmful to our eyes as well as our skin. But there’s some things that we can all do to stay nice and safe while we're in the sun. The five S’s. Slip, slop, slap, seek and slide. Slip on a shirt. Slop on some sunscreen. Slap on a hat. Seek out some shade and slide on some sunnies.
Hey, why don’t we do it with a little bit of music? (music begins) Ah, there we are. So what was the first one? Yes, slip on a shirt. So grab your shirt and pretend you’re putting it on. One arm in, other arm in. Oh, hang on, we put it on back to front! Good. Button up. Alright, I like your moves. Make sure you’ve got a collared shirt, they’re the best. Flick it up. What’s the next one? It begins with a ‘S’. Slop on some sunscreen. Always, 50+ Pretend to pour some in your hand. Rub it. And… arms. Don’t forget your ears and the back of your neck. And your nose. Are you putting your sunscreen on? Don’t forget your legs. What’s next? Slap on a… … hat. Yeah! Let’s go. Now put that hat on. Keep it going. Let’s seek out some shade. I think I can see some. We’ll make our way over there in a minute, but before we do we need to... slide on some sunnies. Put them on (x6).
Great. Let’s put them all together. Slip, slop, slap, seek and slide. (x2) Whoa, that’s a bit crazy. (music ends) Now I’m going to seek out this shelter over here. Can you see where we can shade? Here we are at the jetty. Nice and shady isn’t it? Well, after all that, I think I need a little bit of a rest. And make sure that whenever you are down the beach, bring along some water. Always important to stay nice and hydrated when you’re doing any sort of activity, down the beach or in the pool. I’m Des Swimmer, thanks for coming to the beach with me today. I hope I see you again soon.
Australian Curriculum links
Des Swimmer episode 01 – being sun smart links to the following areas of the Australian Curriculum:
Health and Physical Education
Strand: Personal, Social and Community Health
The Arts
Subject: Dance
General Capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability
Royal Life Saving Australia Toolkit
Thank you to Royal Life Saving Australia for providing these Water Smart educational toolkits for students in reception to year 6.
Each year level has fun water safety activities and challenges:
- reception Water Smart toolkit (PDF 3,401KB)
- years 1 and 2 Water Smart toolkit (PDF 5,003KB)
- years 3 and 4 Water Smart toolkit (PDF 2,352KB)
- years 5 and 6 Water Smart toolkit (PDF 6,189KB).
Royal Life Saving has also developed lots of fun and engaging activity sheets and apps to learn about water safety.
Paddle Australia
Thanks Paddle Australia for sharing the kayaking and canoeing paddling skills. Their website works best in Google Chrome.
Paddle Prep has been designed for:
- all paddlers
- those who are new to paddle sports
- those who have experienced this great lifelong activity.
