1-2-3 Come Do A Few More Fire Safety Activities With Me
I think one of the most important things that I teach my Y5s is fire safety; however, with all of our discussions about not playing with matches, houses burning down, and people getting hurt, I discovered that my students were coming away with the idea that fire was bad.
Simply ask for a thumbs up or down whether your kiddos think fire is good or bad; and I think you’ll find like I did, that most, if not all of your students will give you a thumbs down, emphatically believing that fire is bad!
Since fire is truly beneficial and a necessary part of everyday life, I feel there’s a need to explain this to young children.
It’s important that they learn to respect fire without fearing it. Children need to understand the difference between good fires and bad fires, as well as fire’s beneficial and harmful effects.
With these things in mind, I created this “Good Fire-Bad Fire” packet. These quick, easy & fun activities will help children develop a healthy understanding of fire, so they are able to identify fire as a necessary part of their lives and an essential tool.
The packet includes:
* A simple way to help students realize that fire can be good is to show them pictures, so I've included 65 real photographs of fires which can be categorized by children as good or bad.
Choose a dozen or so and use them for . . .
* flashcards, where students give you a thumbs up or down,
* discussion
* an independent center where children sort the photographs into the 2 “good/bad fire” file folders
*a puzzle center (Cut the photographs in half or in quarters).
* writing prompts (There are 4 graphic organizers, plus 6 “complete the prompt” worksheets for this)
* a bulletin board displaying the pictures under the “good fire/bad fire” header cards.
* I’ve also included a “Flip the Flame” craftivity, where students color, cut and glue the “happy” good flame and the “angry” bad flame back-to-back on a Popsicle stick.
You show a photograph asking “Is this a good or bad fire?” Children flip their flame and hold up their answer.
After sharing and discussing the photographs, children will be able to see that each type of fire has common denominators: good fires are planned, desired, beneficial and supervised by an adult; bad fires are not.
* Two, writing prompt craftivities are a fun way for students to show this understanding, and allow you to check comprehension.
The first one is a 3D flame "dangler" in two colors. (One with characteristics of good fires, the other bad.)
The other craftivity is a side-by-side comparison.
Completed projects make a terrific bulletin board or hallway wall display too.
Younger kiddos can show this knowledge with several worksheet options.
I've included full color patterns, so you can easily make a sample to share, or use for further explanation.
The good fire-bad fire sorting worksheet (see photograph) could also be made into an independent center.
Simply laminate and trim the pieces. To make this self-correcting, put a G or B on the back of each picture.
* The packet also includes a graphing activity, several other worksheets, posters and a bookmark.
Besides being able to differentiate between good and bad fires, I wanted another way to review all of the fire safety rules my students were learning.
As with many of my activities, I like to "kill two birds with one stone", so I designed these "Fire Safety Fix the Sentence" cards.
These 36, fire safety-themed sentence cards, are a quick, easy and fun way to review a variety of fire safety related facts, while practicing capitalization and end punctuation.
Read the cards together as a whole group to practice a lot of Dolch sight words.
Choose a student to come up and using a dry erase marker, circle letters that should be capitalized and then add end punctuation. (period, question mark & exclamation point).
For more practice, as an individual activity, have students choose X number of mini cards and rewrite the sentences correctly on the worksheet provided.
One of the most important fire safety rules that I teach my students, is about dialing 9-1-1 in an emergency. So today's FREEBIE features a 9-1-1 song to the tune of "This Old Man".
There are 3 poster options for you to choose from. I hope your kiddos enjoy it as much as mine.
Well that's it for today. I'm still in a daze that September is over and we are now in October!
My grama Lydia always said "The older you get the faster time flies." Now that I'm in my "sexy sixties" I find that to be especially true!
Wishing you a day filled with sunshine and laughter for a happily-ever-after.
"Time is free, but it's priceless; you can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it, and once you've lost it, you can never get it back." -Harvey Mackay
