Community Helpers Theme: Firefighters & Fire Safety

Even firefighters need a snack break!

My son has been enamored with firetrucks, firemen and the idea of firefighting for as long as I can remember. He's already announced on a number of occasions that he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up! I knew he would have a great time learning about firefighters this week and I also wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk and teach about fire safety. We were fortunate enough to join in with our local mommy & me playgroup as the preschool next door got to meet with some members of our local fire department. The firefighters did a great picture sorting activity with the children to show them common household items that might be hot and unsafe to touch or a fire hazard and those that are generally safe to touch and pose no hazard. They demonstrated how they dress to protect themselves from smoke and fire when they are on the job. They also demonstrated the sound a fire alarm makes. My son even got to go aboard a firetruck! He was a little bit nervous about that (although he still talks about it with excitement) and also felt a bit nervous about the uniform the firefighter wore when he was in full garb, mask and all. I think it is so important, however, that he got to see this outside of a moment of emergency. One thing the firefighters helped the children to practice that is so important was to always respond loudly with "Here I am!" if a firefighter comes into the house in an emergency and to never try to hide from firefighters. Children in school settings practice fire drills regularly, yet we often neglect to address this topic at home. We are practicing this week as well what we would do in our own apartment if we needed to evacuate in a hurry. 

Learning about fire safety and firefighters is serious business, but it needn't be all work and no play. We had plenty of great dramatic play opportunities with this theme! Our aforementioned mommy & me playgroup has also been covering the theme of community helpers (a wonderful coincidence indeed) and their firefighter day happened to perfectly coincide with ours (another wonderful coincidence). The children got to play with toy firetrucks, dress up, make firetruck collages with red paper and red paint and have plenty of fun playing in water! 

The fun and learning continued at home with some fun table time activities, great reads and even some water-play activities of our own.

I filled a basket with some puppets, toy firefighters and firetrucks, a great little board book we found at our Dollar Tree a couple of years ago (we actually have a couple of great sets from there on community helpers and transportation), and my little guy especially loved this fire dog plush as we read Mark Teague's Firehouse!, a charming and informative book about firefighters in which all of the characters are dogs!
We also found some great non-fiction children's literature at our library to help us learn about fire safety and firefighters. One thing my son particularly loves is reading together using emergent readers. He is definitely in the category of pre-reader at only 2.5 years old. He can recognize letters and is beginning to recognize his name as well, but he is by no means reading words at this point nor am I pushing something so beyond his developmental level. Rather, I use emergent readers with descriptive pictures so that he can experience a feeling of success with reading and a connection to pointing to the words along with me, moving from left to right, and gain important concepts that will help his skills develop all in the right time. He gets so excited about having his own copy of a book and feeling as though he is reading it like such a big boy! And as I always tell my students when I am teaching in a classroom, there are many ways to read. Reading words is one, recognizing letters and pictures and that words tell a story are another. We found this great free printable reader at hubbardscupboard.org. The site has a lot of educational resources, particularly for emergent readers and is great for both classroom and homeschool use. While some of the materials are of a religious nature, many are secular and they cross a wide variety of educational and developmental levels.

For some more great free printable activities, videos and resources on fire safety, check out the amazing collection over at Sparky School House.

My son has especially enjoyed our table time activities and play centers with this theme. Here's a peek at some of our firefighter and fire safety related favorites:

Playdough is always a popular activity here! You can print your own set of occupations playdough mats to laminate and use at home (or in your classroom) here!

I found a set of transportation themed lacing shapes at the Dollar Tree a while ago. The firetruck was perfect for this theme!

Waterplay is ALWAYS a favorite activity. I created some fire hats and fires out of craft foam. You could set up an activity like this in a water table or sensory bin and if it's warm weather, it would be great outside. I was feeling a little bit lazy about setting up a waterplay activity and my son needed a bath last night, so we used the tub! I also tossed in some little people and a squirt bottle for putting out those fires! Squeezing the squirt bottle is great fine motor practice for those little developing hands and practicing inside the tub limits some of the surprise showers that result during this learning process!

We made our own fire truck shape collages and dictated some short stories to go with it.

Be Safe and Happy Playing!