Nuisance Abatement Program
The NAP Youth Initiative
NUISANCE INTERVENTION PROGRAM (NIP) LESSON PLAN FOR K-3rd GRADE STUDENTS
GOAL: To teach school children the importance of keeping clean, safe communities with particular emphasis on the health and safety problems regarding vacant and blighted buildings. This will be done by focusing on 3 primary rules: (1) vacant buildings are dangerous, don't ever go inside a vacant building; (2) vacant buildings need to be kept clean, don't litter or vandalize them; and (3) Report all unusual activities and trespassers in or around vacant buildings to parents, teachers or police.
METHOD: Students will be taught through a 2-part initiative: (a) An in school active lesson with the NAP mascot character "Scrappy the NAP Dog", visual presentations and sing-along songs and (b) take home materials for parents to sign after discussion with their children. When the material is returned to the school the child is given a prize.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW: The program will be held in a general assembly of kindergarten through 3rd grade students and take 25-30 minutes. The program begins with a brief introduction by the principal to get students attention and welcome the NAP speaker. The speaker initiates the NAP program with a short song and dance routine and Scrappy is introduced. A power-point lesson on the three primary rules then takes place. After the initial lesson is complete, the students are asked to join in a recitation of the 3 rules and hand-out materials are distributed for the students to take home and review with their parents.
CONTENTS: The props for the stage include two (2) large plywood houses, one of them looks occupied and one looks vacant. As the NAP speaker comes on stage, he shows the children the two houses and points out the characteristics of occupied and vacant houses. The speaker then talks briefly about why the program is being held, and then asks students if they have vacant houses on their block, and if they pass any on the way to school, and if they have ever seen someone doing something bad at a vacant house. Instruction is given to the students on vacant house safety. The 3 rules are again given at the end of this part of the program.
The speaker then starts the power point presentation that shows the blighted vacant houses around the school. The children are admonished to avoid these houses. As the power point is being shown, the speaker talks about why clean houses are better-primarily safety and health issues. After several slides of the bad houses, the speaker tells the students how to keep the community safe and clean. As the speaker talks about the reasons for keeping vacant houses clean, He calls for volunteers to take a verbal quiz to see who remembers the 3 rules of vacant house safety. Scrappy picks the 3 students and helps them with the answers if necessary so they can all be winners.
After the youngsters take the quiz and get the prizes, the entire student audience is again asked to recite the 3 rules of vacant house safety. Next, the speaker asks the students for three more volunteers; this time to do a safe walk it out dance, where safe children have fun avoiding vacant houses. Again, Scrappy picks the three students and they come to the front and dance with Scrappy. These three are also give prizes. After this dance, the students are taught a song called "Safe walk it out" , and the speaker, Scrappy and the students all rap and sing together about a clean safe walk through the neighborhood.
PROGRAM CONCLUSION The principal comes back on stage and informs the students of the handout material which includes: (1) a safety pledge that parents and students sign promising to be safe and obey the 3 rules of vacant house safety, (2) a page with Scrappy listing the 3 rules and (3) a page listing the vacant houses around the school so parents can be aware of many of the addresses that are vacant. The students will take home the literature on being safe around vacant houses and present it to a parent or guardian for discussion and additional instruction. Once the students return the signed take home information sheet the teacher will give that student a prize that NAP will leave with the teachers.