Weekly Learning Theme: Fire Safety

This past week was fire safety week.  There were some things related to fire safety that I wanted to talk about and practice with Carter and then the rest of the week was learning about firefighters.  So this week was more of a combination fire safety/firefighters week, but they really go hand in hand.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
2. Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.
3. Sort objects based on size or color/Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle. 
4. Play make believe.
5. Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
6. Follow simple instructions.

Activities/Movement:

• We played at a playground with a fire truck and Carter was so excited, telling me "fire tuck, mommy!"

• I talked to Carter about how fire makes smoke and we need to crawl under smoke to breathe if there's a fire.  I told him we needed to crawl fast and then we practiced crawling down the hallway.  He was hilarious.  I've never seen him crawl so fast!

• I lit a candle and held Carter's wrist as I let him put his hand near enough to feel it was hot.  We talked about how hot fire is and then we talked about some other things that are hot.

• I told Carter if your clothes ever catch on fire you have to stop, drop, and roll.  I modeled it for him and then we practiced me telling him to pretend his clothes were on fire and to stop, drop, and roll.  So if you're ever around Carter and his clothes catch on fire, yell at him to "stop, drop, and roll" and he'll be all over it!  

 

• We made a Dalmation dog counting book.  I saw the idea here and tweaked it for us.  I went online and printed the outline of a dog and made 10 copies.  Then I used a circle cutter (I had it from making stickers to level the books in my classroom library) to cut out black dots.  We started with a dog with 1 spot and progressed on to a dog with 10 spots.  I would tell Carter how many spots the dog on that page would get and then I'd write the number at the top of the page and then would write words on the bottom of the page, such as "one spot".  I would hand him the spots one at a time and we'd count together as he put glue on the spot and added it to the dog.  He did a great job all the way through dog number 6 and started to lose interest, so I glued a few of the dots on the later dogs.  I'm excited about the book because we can read it during a week on numbers and counting and Carter can even practice reading it before he's ready to read sentences.

Adding one spot to the first dog.

Putting glue on a spot.

Gluing a spot down.

• Ty and I talked one night and discussed a meeting place for if we were to have a fire.  We wanted a spot far enough from the house so we would be safe, but in view of the house so we could look out and see who had made it out of the house and who we needed to look for.  We decided on our water meter that is close to the street, but far enough into our yard that Carter would be safe from cars.  I took Carter out to the water meter and told him if we ever had a fire it would be our meeting spot.  If he stood there with his hand on the meter, daddy or I would come find him.  He practiced putting his hand on the meter and I came and praised him for waiting so safely.  

  

  Waiting with his hand on the water meter.

• We made thank you cards for firefighters to take when we go on a tour of a fire station in December.  Carter chose red to color with and I wrote a note on the inside.

  

  Posing with the thank you cards he made.

• Quite a while ago Ty brought home a firefighter's hat from Firehouse Subs and I've been saving it in Carter's closet.  I pulled out the hat and he ran around playing in it.  If I tried to put it on his head it was a no go, so I just left it out and he'd randomly put it on and wear it around.

 

Craft:

• We used shapes I had already cut out to make a fire truck.  We talked about what shape each piece was and then Carter added glue and I helped him place the shape where it needed to go.  I didn't get any pictures because he wanted to sit in my lap to work.

• Carter made flames by using a fork I had coated in yellow, orange, and read paint.  The flames looked pretty cool, but the paper was mostly bare because he didn't make very many flames so I cut out his best set of flames and added them to the shape fire truck he had made earlier.

Special Snack:

• Using a graham cracker spread with peanut butter and a cut up banana, I created a fire truck for Carter to eat.  It was so cute because when I set it down in front of him, he said "Fire truck, weeeoooo weeeooo!"  I asked him if he liked his fire truck and he said, "Yeah!!!!!"  He ate all the banana pieces, then wiped the peanut butter off to eat, and ate the graham cracker last.  When he was finished he asked for more banana.

Carter's fire truck snack.

He was quite excited to eat his fire truck!

 

Make Believe:

• I took an old box we had in the garage and glued construction paper to it to make it into a fire truck.  Carter sat in it and I played the sound of a fire truck siren as he pretended to drive the truck.  After sitting in it, pretending to be a fire fighter for a while, he requested Harper get in it with him.  I lifted her into the box and she very nicely sat with him for a while before jumping out.  We read fire safety books and books about fire fighters in the fire truck throughout the week.

Driving his fire truck with Harper Lee.

 

 

 

Songs:

• We sang "Stop, Drop, and Roll" and I'd sing it while Carter was practicing the movements.  I sang the song to the tune of "3 Blind Mice" and the song goes like this:

Stop, drop, and roll.

Stop, drop, and roll.

If your clothes ever catch on fire,

stop, drop, and roll.

• We also sang "I'm a Firefighter" to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".  The song goes like this:

I'm a firefighter, my name is John.

I put my boots and helmet on.

I hurry to the fire and give a shout!

With a burst of water,

the fire is out!

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

• We braved the cold to walk down to the fire station by our house.  I planned to take Carter up to the windows so we could look in at the fire trucks.  As we were doing so, we saw a firefighter walking around inside.  He came out to talk to us and said they were going to get their heads measured for their face masks and talked to us for a while.  He told us if we came back later they'd show us the trucks, but once we made it to the library and headed home it was time for lunch and a nap.  Carter liked talking to the firefighter and loved watching the fire truck drive away.  He yelled "Bye, bye!" after the fire truck and we watched it until it was out of sight.

  

  Watching the firefighters drive off in the fire truck.

Books:

• I'm Brave by Kate and Jim McMullan
• The Little Fire Engine by Lois Lenski
• Flashing Fire Engines by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker
• Firefighters by Cecilia Minden
• Firehouse! by Mark Teague
• The Firefighters' Thanksgiving by Maribeth Boelts
• Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
• Protecting Your Home by Ann Owen
• Fireboy to the Rescue by Edward Miller
• Clifford the Firehouse Dog by Norman Bridwell
• Stop, Drop, and Roll by Margery Cuyler
• Firefighters! Speeding! Spraying! Saving! by Patricia Hubbell
• Curious George and the Firefighters by Margaret and H.A. Rey
• Fire Engines by Anne Rockwell
• Fire! Fire! by Gail Gibbons