Teach students how to wear a bike helmet properly
As a teacher, we see a lot of kids with bike helmets. It’s scary to see how many kids wear their bike helmets improperly. The helmet can’t do its job if the fit isn’t right.
Most of the time, an ill-fitting helmet is either too big or worn too loose. As a teacher, you can’t do much about the too-big helmet aside from tell parents. However, you can help kids adjust the fit right away.
Bike helmet fit comes down to three things:
Eyes: the helmet should sit an inch above the eyes (use two fingers to measure that about an inch of forehead shows)
Ears: the straps should form a Y around the ears and come just under the ears
Mouth: the child should be able to fully open her mouth. If not, the strap is too tight.
Make sure kids tighten the strap enough. It’s scary to see a loose strap that lets the helmet come right off the head at the slightest impact or nudge. Below is a simple video, less than a minute long, that demonstrates these concepts.