The Life of a Running Momma: Weekly Learning Theme: Fire Safety

A couple years ago we did a fire safety learning theme around fire safety week, read about it here. Last year I made sure to discuss the most important fire safety tips with Carter but decided against an entire learning theme devoted to fire safety. This year since Ty decide to turn the stroller into a fire truck for Halloween and Carter would be dressed as a fire fighter I thought it would be the perfect theme for us to do right before our Halloween theme. I think the most important tip to teach children is "stop, drop, and roll" if they catch on fire. But it is also important to teach them a meeting place and discuss with them how important it is to get out of the house and stay out of the house if there's a fire. We practiced with our meeting spot a lot one day and then the next day as I was reviewing with Carter I asked him he should do if his clothes ever caught on fire and he proudly said, "Run to the meeting place!" It was cute how proud he was of himself! So I made sure we reviewed stop, drop, and roll quite a bit after that. I told the fire fighters that story when we visited the fire station and they all chuckled.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. I have added working on his name as his teachers at school have asked us to work on it at home and I want to remember to include working on it in some form during each of our learning themes. I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.

The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
Understand same and different.
Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.

Use age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)

Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).

Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).

Experiences Elise was exposed to during our theme this week are highlighted below:

Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
Begin to identify and point at body parts. (Right now I just want to say body parts aloud to her frequently and point them out on myself)
Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
Fill and empty containers.
Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.
Identify sounds around her. (Point out sounds and ask her what is making the sound).

Activities/Movement:

I wrote fire safety on a sentence strip and we talked about the letters in the words. I said the words slowly and had him listen to the sounds to identify the beginning letter of each word and point at which word he thought I was saying. Just like I have been, I segmented and blended the words for Carter. Then we talked a little bit about what fire safety meant. I then hung the sentence strip on our learning theme chalkboard where we display art work from our current learning theme.

Carter looking at the sentence strip as he also stuck stickers to his belly, he's good at multi-tasking.
I put together a fire truck sensory bin with red rice from our China learning theme as the base. Then I put in Carter's fire truck and the felt flames my mom made for my costume at the Twilight Thriller. I put in a couple of straws so they could use them as pretend fire hoses, filling them with rice and dumping them on the flames to put them out. I also added in our red measuring cups and some of our re-used fruit cups. Both the kids loved the sensory bin and Carter actually used the straws as fire hoses. It took some practice, but he got it down!
We read a Scholastic News called "Gear Up Firefigher" that talked about the gear firefighters use to help them put out fires and to keep them safe. As we read about the gear, I had Carter point to different body parts on the firefighter so we could read about the piece of equipment they wore on that body part. I pulled together different articles of clothing to wear as firefighters. I told the kids which piece of equipment to grab and what body part to put it on. Elise did a great job and it was good practice for her as we discussed our body parts. When we were finished I put the clothes in a little dress up basket so they could dress as firefighters whenever they wanted. The back of the Scholastic News had a map where they wanted you to draw a route from the classroom to the class' meeting place. It was a great way to introduce a meeting place and discuss why we need one.

Carter putting his boots on his feet.

Filling out the map on the back of the Scholastic News.

Elise putting her boots on her feet.
After reading a little bit about a meeting place, we talked about how we need a place to meet when we leave the house due to a fire. That way Ty and I will know everyone made it out safely. We went outside and I showed the kids where our meeting place is. I told them we chose it because it is away from the street but also far enough away from the house to keep them safe from smoke and fire. I told them if the fire alarm goes off they are to immediately go out to our meeting place. They are not to stop at all on their way, they go directly there. Then we played a game where they went off and played. Then I'd say, "Ding, ding, ding, ding, fire." When they heard that they would come running and put their hands on our meeting place. At first Carter would get a little confused or would stop on his way, but after some practice he got really good at it!

Checking out our meeting place.

We got all dressed up in our fire fighter gear and pretended to be fire fighters outside. I gave Carter a spray bottle to put out fires. His letters for this month at school are F, N, O, and P. So I wrote all those letters with sidewalk chalk, making sure there were twice as many F's as other letters. I had Carter tell me the names of the letters. Then I asked him which letter was the first letter in fire. I said fire slowly and had him listen to the sounds. Then I told him since F is the first letter in fire, he needed to spray all the F's to put out the fire. He had so much fun spraying the letter F! While he was playing I'd randomly make a beeping sound like a fire extinguisher and he'd run to the meeting place to practice.
I put all the pieces of the kids' firefighter costumes and a few extra items like a mask and boots into one of Carter's toy baskets to make a firefighter dress up bin. The kids would occasionally go over and try on different articles of clothing. They especially enjoyed wearing their firefighter jackets. Elise would wear her hat when she pulled it out of the dress up bin but if I ever tried to put it on her, she wouldn't have it!

Playing dress up with our firefighter dress up bin.
We talked about what to do if your clothes ever catch on fire. Then I had Carter practice how to stop, drop, and roll while teaching it to Elise. Carter loved getting to show Elise how it was done!

I showed Carter where our fire extinguisher is and explained to him that we use fire extinguishers when there is an emergency and we need to put out a fire. Then I showed him a video of someone using a fire extinguisher so he could see what is sprayed out. I put a couple felt fires from our sensory bin into Ziploc bags and then gave him a can of shaving foam to pretend it was a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the shaving foam at the base of the fire and then we played with shaving foam. He had a blast practicing writing his name in the foam.
I printed a picture of a fire truck, colored it in, and wrote Carter's name on it. I then cut it apart to be a puzzle. He loved looking at the letters to figure out how to put together the puzzle. He did it a few times and then decided he wanted to glue his fire truck down on paper.
During our last fire safety learning theme Carter and I worked together to make a fire dog counting book. I helped him count out the correct number of spots to glue onto the outline of a dalmatian and then we added the number for how many dots the dog had. I pulled that book out during this learning theme and Carter practiced counting by counting the number of dots each dog had and then reading the sentences by memory and then adding in the new number.

Counting the dots on the dalmatian.
I found some adorable fire trucks with numbers 1-20 on them here. There was even a fire station to go with them. I printed the whole set but just used 1-10 with Carter. First I shuffled the cards up and had him tell me what number was on the fire trucks. He just knows 1-3 really well and gets a little mixed up with 4 and 5 at times. His friend Hayden was over and is a year older than him, so I let Hayden help with the numbers Carter wasn't sure about. I had them put the fire truck in the station once they had identified it's number. As they worked we talked about how many trucks were in the station and how many were out of it. I had printed two pages of the 1-6 numbers and glued them on construction paper so we could play memory. The boys did a great job flipping the cards over and recognizing what number was on the fire truck. Just this past week I've noticed Carter getting really upset when he doesn't win games. It's never when it's just me and him playing, it's always when he's playing with a friend, especially an older friend. We played the game multiple times to really practice being a good sport and encouraging others even when you win. Carter did a really good job and Hayden was very sweet to him as we played.

Carter and Hayden playing with the fire trucks together.

Playing fire truck memory.

I pulled up a fire truck siren on my phone a few times and played it for Elise, asking her what the noise was and then telling her what it was. When we were out and about and would hear a siren, I would ask her what she heard. We also practiced with a fire alarm sound.

We read four different Scholastic News magazines about fire safety and firefighters. One focused on what captions are. As we read the magazine, Carter circled all the captions he could find. On the back it talked about dalmatians and how they helped keep fire horses calm when horses had to pull fire wagons. Carter loved reading about that history. Another Scholastic News had pictures of household objects, some hot others not, and had Carter x out the ones not to touch.

Carter circling a caption.
Carter led us on a tour of the house pointing out things that are hot and we don't want to touch for Elise. Then we talked about how you want to check the doorknob to see if it is hot before you open the door. If it is hot there might be a fire on the other side. We also practiced get low and go, crawling under the smoke to breathe. So we crawled in our hallway to practice.

After our trip to the fire station I had Carter tell me what his favorite part of our trip was and I wrote it down for him. Then he illustrated to show what he enjoyed the most.

Working on illustrating his favorite part of our trip to the fire station.

Craft:

I printed a fire truck coloring page for Carter to color and one for Elise. Carter really worked hard on his picture. I've noticed when he brings coloring pages home from school he has just scribbled all over the picture so I colored with him and showed him how when I color I try to color one part of the picture at a time and try to make it look nice. I showed him it's okay to color outside the lines. He worked hard to color different sections of the picture rather than scribbling all over the page. Elise colored on her picture a little bit before losing interest and moving on to play with the sensory bin.

Working on his coloring page.

Special Snack:

Originally I had planned to roast marshmallows and use that as an opportunity to discuss fire safety. Then I realized I had planned ham and pineapple sandwiches for dinner one night which was actually originally a campfire meal I had in girl scouts. The night we had that for dinner Ty let Carter watch and help him make a fire, discussing fire safety. Then I let Carter help me put the sandwiches wrapped in foil on the fire. We discussed the different colors of flames and which are the hottest as well as the fact that coals are still really hot even though you can't see fire on them. I blew on some coals and Carter was amazed when they lit up with orange. After dinner we roasted marshmallows, again discussing fire safety. When we were finished with the fire Ty showed Carter how to safely put out a campfire.

Dinner by the fire.

Make Believe:

Multiple times throughout the week we would play a game where Carter was the firefighter and I would call him to tell him about a fire. He loved rushing to the fire and pretending to put it out using his fingers which were hoses. His favorite was when Hayden was over at my parents' house. Hayden was pretending to start fires and Carter would run along putting them out. Hayden was playing like he was a villain, talking in a different voice, it was hilarious. At one point Hayden pretended to set Carter's shirt on fire so Carter yelled, "Drop, drop, and roll!" Then he laid down one the ground and started rolling around.

Carter putting out a fire with his finger hoses.

Songs:

We sang "Stop, Drop, and Roll" a lot. I'd sing it while Carter practiced the movements and Elise always joined in. The song is to the tune of "3 Blind Mice" and goes like this:

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!

We also sang "The Wheels on the Bus" but changed the words around for "The Wheels on the Fire Truck." We sang siren with it's noise, ladder, hose, water spraying, etc. We'd sing what was on the fire truck and then make the noise it makes. Carter liked coming up with things to sing.

One of the Scholastic News magazines had a song on the front and I thought it was cute. We sang it a few times. It is to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and goes like this:

Fire, fire, firefighters,

watch them race and go.

Firefighters are for sure

the bravest ones I know!

Technology:

I found a fun fire truck game for Carter to play here. It was good practice with using arrow keys on the computer as well as using aim.

I found a bunch of fun Sparky games here. My favorite was a memory game. Sparky talked about fire alarms and how when you hear them, you want to go straight outside. Then you'd play a game of memory and when the alarm sounded you were supposed to click on the door to go outside. It was great practice for stopping what you are doing so you can be safe. When I was trying out the game at naptime one day I didn't want to stop playing to go outside. Carter did wonderfully when he played, going outside immediately each time. I liked the Sparky website because I went to it on my phone and found out the games were also available in the app store so that's how Carter played all those games.

I also downloaded a Danger Rangers Firefighters app. There was a book to read about fire trucks, a 911 song, puzzles, and a dress up game. Carter enjoyed playing with this app a little bit on our drive to my parents' house over the weekend.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

I called the fire station right down the street to see if we could stop by for a little tour. They said we could come anytime, just ring the buzzer so we invited one of Carter's friends and headed down. They gave us a tour of the building, answered questions, and let the kids play in the fire truck. Obviously that was Carter's favorite part of the trip. I really enjoyed asking questions and was impressed by how friendly the fire fighters were and how good they were with children. I went around the truck for a different view and found one of the fire fighters playing peek-a-boo with Elise through the fire truck window!