Children should learn to be safe on the roads from an early age. They should already learn the rules here that will accompany them throughout their lives.

We also try to teach our youngest children the rules of coexistence, in particular the rejection of violence, through our work in kindergartens.

The police work with teachers to teach even the youngest children how to be safe on the roads.

The main focus of the exercises is

• The children should get to know the police as a "friend and helper".
• They should recognize how other road users see children.
• They should use safety systems on their own initiative, e.g. buckle up when riding in the car.
• They should learn through exercises how to always get out of the car correctly.
• With practical exercises in road traffic, we show them typical dangers that they should avoid as far as possible and teach them how to deal with them.
• Through practical exercises, they learn the correct way to cross lanes in safe or unsafe places.

Prepare children for dangerous situations through play

The educational puppet show helps us to talk about road traffic through play. We show playful examples that our little ones will remember for a long time.

The traffic puppet stage has been part of the North Rhine-Westphalia police's prevention program since the early 1950s. While its program initially focused exclusively on road safety education, the repertoire has since been expanded to include general topics on behavioural prevention.

The puppet show is a useful addition to road safety education and behavioural training in kindergartens and elementary school. In a playful way, we teach the children the correct behavior in traffic and other dangerous situations.

The puppets, with the support of the police officers, show the children how dangerous playing on and near the road can be and how to behave correctly in traffic situations, e.g. at traffic lights.