Stranger Danger

About this resource

What do I do when a person I do not know asks me to go somewhere with them? This is a short picture story a class can read together, 24 situation cards to sort onto a "Safe Grown-Up" or "Unsafe Situation" mat, and worksheets with room to write. Every situation is a school or community one: a ride offered at the bus stop, a request at the park, a pick-up at the door, a worker with a name tag in a store. Every unsafe card ends the same way: stop, step away, tell a trusted grown-up. It is a classroom conversation starter, and it comes with the log that writes down what happened.

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 34 pages

• An 8-page social story, "People I Do Not Know": one drawn picture and one short sentence on each page, a "My name" line and one instruction at the top of every page
• 24 situation cards in 3 pages of 8, cut apart 2 across and 4 down so each cut is one straight line: 12 safe grown-up or ordinary moments (the crossing guard, the librarian, the bus driver, a worker with a name tag) and 12 unsafe situations (a ride, a puppy in a car, "your teacher said you can go with me")
• A Sort Mat with two big boxes, Safe Grown-Up and Unsafe Situation
• Try One Together: one card worked step by step (read, think, sort, do the 3 steps)
• Safe or Unsafe?: 2 pages, 12 new situations (none repeated from the cards), a SAFE box and an UNSAFE box beside each
• Stop, Step Away, Tell: a drawn picture, a short sentence and a writing line for each of the 3 steps
• My Trusted Grown-Ups: lines for the student and a grown-up to fill in, with a box for the words the family says
• What Would I Do?: 3 unsafe situations, each with the 3 steps to check and a line to write who the student tells
• 8 blank cards for your own situations
• A how-to page and an answer key for every card and worksheet situation
• A Sort Log (20 rows: date, card number, what the student sorted it as, plus or minus, your own prompt code, initials)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent graph
• A filled example: an invented student, one week on the log and three weeks on the roll-up
• A family page with 6 small cards to cut apart, a note home and blank lines for the family's own rule and the grown-ups they trust
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another room uses the cards the same way, with a blank line for your school's own pick-up rule
• Start Here, a contents page, and a "what's next" back page

The Cards

Each card is one short school or community situation. The student reads it, or hears it read aloud, and puts it on the mat. There are no photos and no pictures of people. Use a blank card for any situation that fits your own school or neighborhood better.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the name lines, the writing lines, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

Who This Is For

Special education and general education teachers (grades K-3), paraprofessionals and school counselors who want a concrete picture-and-sort way to talk about people we do not know and trusted grown-ups, case managers who need it to show up as data, and the families who get the home page.

More In The Collection

This set is in the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Authority Figures: School and Community Helpers Picture Cards and Story, Safe vs Unsafe Classroom and Playground Sort Cards and Story, Hallway Expectations Sort Cards and the Fire Drill Social Story. Free to try first: Visual Supports Starter Set FREE.