Desert Blossoms Preschool: Community Helpers: Firefighters & Fire Safety

This week we started our Community Helpers unit. We started off by discussing what a Community Helper is.

"It's your mom and dad!" Karol.

"Yea, it's your mom and dad." Athena in agreement.

"They can be. Let's think of who helps us..."Ms. Jaymee.

"A police officer?" Abby.

"YES! A police officer. What else?" Ms. Jaymee

So began our list of Who are the people in your neighborhood. Afterwards we watched a video on Community Helpers. Our first helper we looked at was a firefighter. The gear they wear, equipment they use, the trucks they drive and of course what to expect if there is a fire.

Our first lesson was on fire itself. There are 3 things that fire needs to burn:

1. Heat

2. Air

3. Fuel

I demonstrated each of these by using 3 small birthday candles to show the 3 things that fire needs to burn and how to put out a fire safely. I emphasized that children do not play with matches, lighters or with a lit fire.

Part 1: Heat
I lit the first candle and then sprayed it with a water bottle to show that if we remove the heat, the flame went out.

Part 2: Air
Next I lit the second candle and placed a glass over the top to show that if you take away the air the flame will also go out.

Part 3: Fuel
Finally, the 3rd candle I lit was allowed to burn until the wax was all gone to show that if you remove the ‘fuel’ the fire will go out.

Fireman Gear:
Next we made fireman hats. The kids painted their hats red (our sight word this week).

Stop-Drop-Roll:
One of the most well known fire safety actions is the “Stop-Drop-Roll”. We did this several times, rolling around our classroom to put out our pretend flames.

Evacuation Plan:
Once we were done practicing our stop, drop and roll, we discussed making an evacuation plan. I did this for DBP, but it is very important that each family take the time to make their own evacuation plan with a meeting spot. I showed them how to check their door for heat before opening it, then discussed how smoke rises. When evacuating your home they should stay as low to the ground as possible. Baylee and Devynn help me with this part by using a sheet (pretending it was smoke) and the kids had to crawl as low and as fast as they could.

Fire Drill:
We went over our evacuation plan and had our first fire drill. I rang a bell in the classroom and the kids had to drop what they were doing and line up. We left out the front door today and met on the small bridge over the wash that is a few doors down from the house. We’ll do these randomly from here on out so the kids can practice leaving out different exits but always meeting in the SAME spot!

For fun we listened to a book about Firefighters and learned a new song called Hurry Hurry Fire Truck. You can click here to see the Barney version of this song on YouTube. The kids loved this song!

Dialing 911:
Our last lesson to wrap up the day included how to dial 911. I took an old phone and passed it around for each child to practice the numbers and what to say:
"HELP! Fire!"
We then colored a 911 coloring page that they can hang up in their room or on your fridge. Once again I told the kids they should only dial this number if there is a real fire or an emergency!

These lessons should not stop here. Please continue to talk with your children at home about fire safety and what to do if there is a fire. It is important for older children to learn their phone numbers and their home address (these will be future goals!) I hope they all learned a little bit today, it could one day save a life.