1-2-3 Come Sing A Fire Safety Song With Me
Almost 15 years ago, my 1st graders enjoyed singing my version of The Wheels On The Bus Go 'Round and 'Round, as I'd add all sorts of extra goofy things to the traditional favorite.
When October rolled around, and we were studying fire safety, I thought it would be fun to substitute a fire truck for the bus. My kiddos loved it.
Well it's years later and I decided to build a Common Core packet around this silly little song. While doing research, I even found a few people who had the same idea. ("Great minds think alike and all that..." )
Any woo, what started out to be just a few things, morphed into a whopping 69-page packet, and believe me, my brain is a bit fried.
I had a few requests for some fire safety themed alphabet and number cards, so I threw them into the mix, and one thing led to another...
Take a peek, pick the items that suit your fancy, and let the fun begin.
The Packet Includes:
Students place the uppercase letter circle on the first wheel and then match the lowercase letter circle to the back wheel.
Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Wheels On The Truck Packet.
While looking for fire truck ideas, I came across a super-simple fire truck Make a Vehicle game over at Enchanted Learning.
I always liked to give my Y5's some computer time, and this would make a quick, easy and fun independent activity to practice keyboarding skills etc.
I also found an excellent video on YouTube featuring real fire trucks. It's only 2:44 minutes long. My grandson was revited, but then he's only 2 and everything is pretty exciting.
If you're teaching numbers 1-10, Monster Fire Trucks is also a rather short video (4:18) that's kind of cute. Certainly attention grabbing.
Well that's it for today. (Where has it gone?) I hope your kiddos enjoy learning, as their own wheels start turning. I'm off for a romp outside to unclutter my mind. Wishing you a fabulous fall!
"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places." -Author Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do Some Fire Safety Writing Prompt Craftivities With Me
I'm having a great time dreaming up quick and easy fire safety activities for October's Fire Prevention Month. I hope you find something here that you and your kiddos will enjoy.
One of my personal favorites is "Hot Tips For Fire Safety." I designed a matchbook to feature the hot tips. Simply trim and fold a sheet of construction paper to make the matchbook. (Pattern included.)
On the outside of the matchbook it says: A perfect match: Smart kids and fire safety.
Flip it open to find a list of hot tips at the top, and the matches on the bottom, with a warning to never play with matches.
When everyone is done, review and discuss the tips.
For writing practice, have older students make up a list of their own tips, or have them write additional advice on the back.
Click on the link for the Hot Tips Fire Safety Matchbook craft.
My Y5's loved to make and wear hats and crowns, so I designed an easy fire helmet for your kiddos. Older students can write several fire safety facts on the front, back or rim.
You could also make extra badges for children to wear. They say: "I'm fire safety smart. I'm alert, so I won't get hurt. "
For extra reinforcement, have students don their hat, pick a partner and give each other fire safety advice.
For more fire safety fun, make a flaming dangler. This craftivity also reinforces the importance of not playing with fire. I used the universal "no" sign to make the top portion, with a 3D flame dangling from the bottom.
These look wonderful suspended from your ceiling, as they spin in the breeze. Older students can simply make the larger flame and use it to write 3 different fire safety ideas on it.
I've included a list of fire safety writing prompts for them to choose from. Click on the link to view/download the fire safety writing prompt craft.
Finally, while doing research, I came across a wonderful fire safety song to the tune of This Old Man. I used it on 3 poster options to help children remember to call 9-1-1 in an emergeny.
I've also included a smaller black and white version that students can color and take home to share with their families. There are 3 on a page for quick printing.
Both places I found the song posted, did not know the author. It was simply too cute not to share. I hope you enjoy it too!
Well that's it for today. Thanks for visiting. It's time to find the rest of my October books. Looking through stories always gives me zillions of ideas.
What better way to spend a few hours. I hope you can pop by tomorrow for the latest FREEBIES. Wishing you an ed-venturous day.
"The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed." - Lloyd Jones
1-2-3 Come Do A Few More Fire Safety Activities With Me
I'm going to continue to design fire safety activities for the next few days. As stated in a previous article, I truly believe it's so important to plug something in about dialing 911 in an emergency, plus a few other fire safety rules during Fire Prevention Month.
Because I know we are all pressed for time, these are simple, easy and quick to do.
Whenever possible, I try to include a standard, such is the case with the Fire Safety Hidden 911 In A 100s Chart activity.
I've included a blank 100's grid for older students to practice writing to 100, as they fill in the numbers.
However, even if your kiddos can't count that high yet, refer them to the 100's chart you have hanging in your room and have them copy the numbers. (How many can they fill in before they have to take a peek at the chart?)
For younger students, there's a 100s chart that's filled in. The directions on the side of their worksheet, tell them to color in certain numbered boxes, to reveal a hidden number.
I've included a completed sample that you can hold up and say: "Is this the number you found?" You can then discuss or review the importance of the number and when you should call 911.
Click on the link to view/download the Fire Safety 911 Hidden Number In A 100s Chart activity.
If you're looking for a list to share with your students, of when it's OK to dial 911, click on the link for my Who Ya' Gonna Call?" fire safety (dialing 911 in an emergency) booklet.
You can simply make a copy to read to your students, or run off copies of the 2-page booklet, so that children can practice tracing and writing 911.
A 3rd page can be added for older students, where they make a list of more examples of when they should dial 911. When they're done, they illustrate their page.
Finally, another quick and easy way to reinforce dialing 911 in an emergency, is with a fire safety number puzzle,which will also help reinforce number sequencing from 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1 and skip counting by 10's to 100.
I've included full color copies for you to print, laminate and trim. Keep these in Ziplock Baggies and use for independent centers and something for "early finishers" to do.
There are also some puzzles in black and white. Run these off so that students can color their puzzle and then cut it apart.
For an interesting mosaic piece of art, give students a variety of colors of construction paper, they glue their puzzle pieces on it, leaving a little gap between each piece.
Completed projects make an interesting bulletin board. Click on the link to view/download the 12 Fire Safety Number Puzzles.
Thanks for visiting today. Time to get hustling on a long list of errands. Wishing you many relaxing moments . . .
"From what we get, we can make a living; however, from what we give, we make a life." - Arthur Ashe
1-2-3 Come Do Some Common Core Activities With Me and Spot the Fire Safety Dog
Since the Common Core Scarecrow packet was such a popular download, I thought it would be fun to design a fire-safety themed one. Thus Spot the Common Core Fire Dog was born.
The packet includes patterns to make 4 Dalmatian matching games for: (upper & lowercase letters, numbers, shapes and colors). Students put a fireman's hat on the Dalmatian, then find the matching bone to put in his mouth.
For example, Sparky, the shape Dalmatian has a 2D shape on his fire hat.
Students find the matching bone with the shape word on it, and slide it under the slit of Sparky's mouth. For another matching game, and to cover more standards, write the shape's attributes on the back of the bones.
To complete the CCSS shape standard, and review spatial directions, have students place the dog bone above, behind, under, beside etc.
I've also included a spotless dog for you to program for other things, as well as a black and white spotted puppy so students can color it. (Use as a topper for writing prompts etc.)
There are also blank fire hats and blank bones for you to program with whatever. Use them for other games, name tags, or write a fire safety rule on each bone.
For even more practice, there are 16 "I Spy" worksheets.
Use them as a fun way to quickly and easily whole group assess: upper and lowercase letters, numbers, number words, colors, color words, shapes, and shape words.
I've also included 5 trace and write worksheets to practice writing upper and lowercase letters, plus numbers from 1-100.
Since so many fire safety rules begin with a contraction like "Don't play with matches." I've included these Dalmatian-themed contraction action activities: an alphabetical list of 72 contractions, 24 pocket cards with fire-safety sentences using contractions, plus 3 contraction worksheets.
To grab some fun, click on the link to view/download the fall FREEBIE: Common Core Fire-Safety Themed Puppy Packet.
If you'd like to make a Dalmatian sock puppet to use with these activities, or when you read some fire-safety books that feature a Dalmatian fire dog, click on the link. A little square of cardboard inside the toe of the sock, makes the "talking mouth".
I made these each year with my students. We used them to show spatial directions and share a fire-safety fact. My kiddos also had fun showing how to stop-drop and roll using their puppy puppet.
I've included a copy of our Puppey Pokey song, which was a great way to get the wiggles out! There's also a puppy adoption certificate. My Y5's enjoyed naming their puppies and then introducing them to the class.
We really enjoy the song: Who Let The Dog's Out, so we'd finish up our fire-safety day rocking out to that tune. Click on the link for a You Tube listen. LOVE the variety of dogs that they use in their animation. :-)
I hope you found something that your kiddos will enjoy. Thanks for visiting. Time for a little fresh air.
I love the crunching sound as I tromp through fallen leaves. The colors are looking pretty spectacular and there's a crisp coolness to the air this morning. Wishing you a sunshine-filled day.
"When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time." -Author Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do Some 911 Activities With Me
Teaching students that they can dial 911 in an emergency is extremely important. I do this during Fire Safety Week.
One of the things that we do is sit in a circle and pass around a variety of kinds of phones. We discuss their differences as we locate the numbers 911 on them.
Each child takes a turn answering the question: "What number do you call in an emergency?" They reply 911 and then dial it on an old cell phone.
I watch to make sure that they are pressing the 9 and not the 6. Practice continues 'til each child has had a turn. Listening to the number repeated 20+ times, as students take their turn, is beneficial reinforcement.
Afterwards, students pick a partner, and act out scenarios of when to call 911, taking turns dialing the number. I have a tub of different real phones that people have donated to us, so I have a nice supply of over 15 phones.
It's important to remind students that they should only dial this number in a real emergency, because if they're just fooling around, they could tie up the line for someone who really needs help.
For more practice, I designed two quick and easy fire safety crafts that are also fun ways to reinforce dialing 911 in an emergency.
The first one is a paper cell phone. I chose to draw Apple's Smart Phone, because of the play on words: "I'm smart. I know how to dial 911 in an emergency." that I typed at the top.
The phone flips open to reveal a cute "Call 911" song that your students will enjoy singing to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It."
Older students can write a list of when to call 911 in the empty space on the left.
I've included a larger poster of the 911 song as well. I did not write this little diddy.
Quite a few years ago a fellow teacher shared it with me, so I have no idea where it came from.
I've Googled it, and actually found it, but that teacher too did not know the author.
I also work on making sure that children are not mixing up the 9 with the number 6, so I have them color in the numbers on their paper cell phone.
There's also a "Don't Be Fooled" worksheet, where students find and circle all of the 9's hiding amongst similar numbers and letters, like a 6, q, and p.
For more practice, I've also included a trace and write 911 worksheet.
The 2nd craftivity is a large 911 that students fill in with pieces of torn red, yellow and orange construction paper.
(I cut 1 inch strips of construction paper on a paper cutter. Each child gets one of each color.)
Ripping and tearing paper is wonderful fine motor practice that helps strengthen finger muscles.
Children rip a pile of each color and then rub a glue stick over the 9 and press down the pieces of paper, continuing 'til all of the numbers are completely filled. Remind students to rub the glue on the number and not on the individual tiny pieces of paper. This is faster and their fingers won't get all sticky.
Encourage students to sing the 911 song whiile they work on this activity. (My Y5's started singing on their own, without a prompt from me, so I know your kiddos will also enjoy it.) Completed projects make a terrific fall bulletin board.
Click on the link to view/download the 911 Fire Safety Packet. Thanks for visiting today. Hope you can stop by tomorrow for more fire safety craftivities. I'm off to church. Once again, my early morning has flown by. Wishing you a blessed day.
"It always seems impossible until it is done." -Nelson Mandela
1-2-3 Come Do Some Fire Safety Activities With Me
In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day Proclamation, and since 1922, Fire Prevention Week has been observed on the Sunday through Saturday period in which October 9th falls.
Over the years, I've had two of my students involved in trailer fires, one in which my Y5 was the one who alerted the family and dialed 911, so don't think a fire won't happen to your kiddos.
Prepare them like it will. In Jose's case that preparation was quite possibly life saving. I start my Fire Safety Week with all sorts of fiction and non fiction stories.
If you're looking for a list of appropriate fire safety books for little ones, I've compiled a list of 55 of my all-time favorites.
So that you can quickly and easily plug in some relevant fire safety into your busy day, here are some simple fire safety craftivities for you to choose from.
The first two have an "I promise" aspect to them. A promise is a big deal to a child, so when they make a promise to me, I think they are more committed to following through.
Promises also show them the importance of fire safety. Signing their promise activities give them extra clout. Such is the case with the "Stop and Think" hand print craftivity.
On the front is a child's painted white hand print; on the back is our promise pledge: "Stop and think. Give me a high five for fire safety. Don't - don't - don't play with matches, candles or lighters. I promise I won't - won't - won't! I'm alert so I won't get hurt." These looked terrific twirling from our hallway ceiling.
My personal favorite is: Hands Off Fire. This too is a promise craftivity. The flames of the fire are a child's paper hands. If you look closely you'll see that they are crinkled like cardboard.
(I ran them through a crimper roller, that you can buy at any craft store. Well worth the $18, as I use it for that "finishing touch" for lots of projects.)
Using hands for the flames, is not my original idea. I came across a photo on Pinterest with no link or pattern, so I decided to dream up my own.
I've also included a Never Ever fire safety song, with matching poster.
Ever conscious of Common Core State Standards, I tried to throw in some writing activities for older students.
As you can see by the photo, students complete a writing prompt (I've provided 2 options) and then glue their bonfire to the top.
I've also included a fire safety - promise poster that all of your students can sign.
Finally, as with all of my themes, I use them as an opportunity to build vocabulary. F is for Fire covers 24 fire-themed words.
Some of them begin with the word fire, which is used as an adjective (teachable moment for "describing" words), others are compound words. (Another teachable moment!)
Students rip and tear red, yellow and orange strips of construction paper. Have children make 3 piles of colors and then rub a glue stick over the letter F, pressing each piece down.
My Y5's loved doing rip and tear activities, and I included them because they are a great fine motor skill and really help strengthen finger muscles. Completed projects make awesome fall bulletin boards too.
Older students can alphabetize the list of words and write them down. For that fire-effect, I used a pinking shears to edge the construction paper.
That's it for today. I don't want this blog article to get too long, so I hope you can pop back tomorrow, as I have lots more fire safety FREEBIES to share with you.
I'm off to Art Prize; 1000's of amazing exhibits throughout our downtown area. Quite the big deal here in Grand Rapids, MI.
"Individually, we are one drop. Together we are an ocean." -Ryunosuke Satoro
7 pages.
Reinforce the fire safety tip of "stop-drop-and roll" with this quick craft. Includes a stop drop and roll song and song poster. This item will be FREE for an entire year (!) Woo hoo. After which time, it will be up-dated and put in Diane's Dollar Deals in my TpT shop. Click on the link to zip on over.
12 pages
This is a wonderful craft to help students practice their cutting skills, as the hose is a spiral. The packet also includes a "Put Out the Fire" song, and song poster. Older students can add a writing prompt to another waterdrop. This craftivity will be free for an entire year (!), after which time it will be up-dated and put in my TpT shop. Click on the link to zip on over to take a look: Put Out the Fire! Fire Safety Craftivity. For your convenience, I've included a PREVIEW here.
4 pages.
Here's a list of my all-time favorite fire safety books. I hope they help you with your story time selections.
1-2-3 Do Some Fire Safety Stuff With Me!
This month has simply gotten away from me; with so much to do it's a bit overwhelming. My "to do" list keeps getting longer; I no sooner cross a few things off, and then find myself adding a zillion more; I'm certain everyone can relate.
Unfortunately, I did not get to design any of the stack of fire safety ideas that I wanted to. However, I do have quite a bit of fire safety FREEBIES from the past available.
If you're looking for a list of tried and true Fire Safety books you're kiddo's will enjoy, click on the link to take a peek at my Fire Safety Book Bibliography, it's a list of 55 of my all-time favorites.
I know that the "official" Fire Safety Week, was last week, but with many teachers having conferences, and some schools not celebrating Halloween, I thought maybe some of you would be working on Fire Safety now.
Since craft ideas seem to be the most downloaded and pinned lately, I thought I'd share the fire safety craftivities my Y5's have done in the past. The handprint stop sign was a parent favorite.
We accomplished all of these "craftivities" in a week's time. I set a new one up each day as a center.
Our hallway always looked amazing and displaying their work not only helped build their self-esteem, but showed the rest of the school what we were doing.
With each project, I reinforced life-saving fire safety rules, trying to gently beat into their heads that they should NEVER play with matches, etc.
Many of the "craftivities" reflect this important rule. My personal favorite is the flip-up matchbook. I was also pretty happy with the way the Kleenex box - "House on fire" turned out too. We did this as a shape review with our 2nd-grade reading buddies.
My Y5's also enjoyed chanting: "I'm alert, so I won't get hurt." little ditty that I made up, as well as giving themselves a "thumbs up" when we'd go over all sorts of fire safety rules that they had learned.
Even though they had a blast pretending to be on fire, and then stop-dropping-and rolling, they knew the importance of that advice.
We also practiced dialing 911 on real (non-working) cell phones that parents had donated over the years.
Since my Y5-er's were forever mixing up 6's and 9's, I wanted to make sure that they "got it!" Quite a few fire safety activities that I've posted, revolve around practicing 911.
After one of my more inquisitive kiddo's, dialed it for real, at home "to see if it worked" I made sure to explain in even more detail, that this was for emergency purposes only, and then we'd discuss what an emergency was. Five years later, one of my kiddo's saved the day when he called 911 when his family's trailer caught fire from an electrical problem.
The Fire Safety Art & Activities packet is a whopping 63-pages long and includes some full color pictures, + copy-ready patterns and step-by-step directions for each project. This was one of the first packets that I made when I launched the site, so it doesn't reflect all of the software improvements I now incorporate with recent designs, but it's still a favorite of many visitors.
I really wish I had the time to revamp some of the older files, but a lot of them are 50-100 pages long, so I have to content myself with letting the past go and simply design new stuff each day with the quality I now have in place.
These fire safety activities all involve many of your report card standards, so children are learning and reinforcing much-needed math, writing, and science concepts while enjoying art.
They are a wonderful way to help increase listening and following direction skills, as well as cutting and other fine motor skills too. To me, there is nothing better than hands-on, when it comes to working with little ones.
Use their completed and adorable "mess-terpieces" as bulletin boards, hallway and classroom decorations or for portfolios. My Y5's personal favorite was the Dalmatian puppy sock puppet, as well as making and wearing their paper fire hat.
My little ones got a kick out of writing their puppy's name on their adoption certificate, which is included in the packet. When everyone completed their Dalmatian, we'd sit in a circle on the carpet. Wearing their puppy puppet, children would take a turn having their dog bark and say its name + a fire safety rule.
We'd do the Puppy Pokey, and they'd place their puppy in the position of whatever spatial direction I called out. "Put your puppy UNDER your arm, OVER your head, BETWEEN your legs etc." It was a fun way to get the wiggles out and review spatial direction words at the same time.
Click on the link to view/download the Fire Safety Art & Activities packet. If you're looking for more fire safety FREEBIES click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site.
Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN anything you like. To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black. Now click on the "Pin it" button located on the burgundy menu bar. If you'd like to see all of the terrific-educational items that I pin, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.
"Never let your fears hold you back from pursuing your hopes." -John F. Kennedy