Fire Prevention Teaching Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten

Fire Safety and Burn Prevention Packet Overview

This packet is designed to support preschool and kindergarten skills. It offers fun, hands-on activities that provide a practical approach to teaching kids about fire safety and burn prevention.

 

Hot Household Items Bingo

Preschoolers may not realize that familiar objects can become hot when used. This bingo game features nine cards with everyday household items that can cause burns. These items include a match, iron, candle, fireplace, lighter, oven, light bulb, hair dryer, and a hot drink. 

 

A black-and-white version of the nine bingo cards is included for economical printing. Students can use bingo chips or paint daubers to mark their cards. Remind them that bingo is won by getting three in a row-either across or down!

 

This packet also includes picture-calling cards. As an alternative, cue cards describe the items from a first-person point of view, helping build language skills.

As an alternative, cue cards describe the items from a first-person point of view, helping build language skills.

 

Firefighting Board Game

In this board game, players race to put out a fire at a house. Along the way,they collect essential gear-an ax, boots, fire extinguisher, ladder, hose, and lots of water. At the end, a child stands safely away from the house, holding a phone with a fire truck nearby.

 

 

Players use the two markers to move around the game board: a firefighter bear and dog. Fold them into a paper tent for easy use. Alternatively, you can use game markers, like math cubes or other items you have on hand.

 

Evacuation Rehearsal with a Maze

Students know they must exit a structure quickly during a fire and not grab valuables. The fire evacuation maze builds fine motor skills and reinforces this crucial safety message. In this maze, they must guide their way out of a "palace" without stopping for treasures. 

 

Household Items That Can Cause a Burn

This worksheet revises six of the nine things from the bingo game-a candle, an iron, a hot drink, a match, a light bulb, and a lighter. It reinforces what students learn about things that can burn them.

 

Firefighter-Themed Visual Discrimination Acuity

These worksheets help students sharpen their observation skills by focusing on subtle differences in images. One  worksheet asks students to find the firefighter's hat that is different from the others in the row. Another worksheet has students spot the animal dressed as a firefighter, among other animals.

 

 

Fire Safety Write and Wipe Inserts

"Write and Wipe" centers are easy to prepare, and the kids love them! These inserts are color versions of the worksheets in the packet. Print them, place them in dry-erase pockets, and provide dry-erase markers and erasers.

 

This fire and burn prevention packet offers two engaging games, three worksheets, and printable inserts for your "Write and Wipe" center. Help students learn about fire safety while practicing essential skill! Tap on the image below to view the packet at my shop.

 

 

That's all for now!

© 2017, © 2024, Molly McMahon, Lessons by Molly

 

Fire Safety and Burn Prevention with Objects in the Home

A young child tries to help her mother by carrying a bowl of hot soup up the stairs.  The soup spills in transport burning the child's arm.  The little girl doesn't know that she needs to take action immediately.  Instead, she cleans up the spilled soup and goes about her day with a painful burn.  She doesn't tell her parents about the incident until HOURS later causing the burn to progress and resulting in a trip to an emergency care center.  Fortunately this real life incident ended with a complete healing of the skin.

This account demonstrates a regretful fact.  Children are not being educated about what to do when they are burned.  Moreover, there is little or no fire safety or burn prevention program mandated.  At best, fire safety and fire prevention is pushed into a single health standard which gives a vague mention of it.  Many schools have no materials or curriculum for fire safety leaving it to the teacher to build a program herself/himself.  Perhaps the best thing that educators can do in this situation is to share their ideas for fire safety and burn prevention with each other.  Here's an idea:

Ever since the event with my family member, I knew that a fire safety unit needed to include a component that tells children how to react if they are burned by liquid or food instead of just how to avoid it.  The number one thing I tell children to do is to report the burn to an adult IMMEDIATELY.  I also reinforce the fact that hot liquids can burn.  Many children find this to be counter intuitive because they have a visual image in their minds of water being used to put a fire out.  Maybe it's something they've seen on television.  Another activity that I include in a fire safety and burn prevention unit is a teacher's "Show and Tell".  I gather together some of my household items and bring them to class.  Some items are passed around the circle for the children to touch.  Items such as lighters are viewed but not passed around the circle.  The point is made that those items are too dangerous for children to touch.

FREEBIES!

I've created a picture file with photos that I've taken of items that can burn.  Click PICTURE FILE to get it.  Click POWERPOINT to get the PowerPoint version.  Click the image shown below to get the PDF version.  

If you live in the state of Virginia and are curious about the fire safety and prevention standards, you can find them at the Virginia Department of Education website.  Go to the "Health" standards.  Here are the standard numbers for kindergarten and first grade:  K.1 - p and 1.1 - e.  I could not find a curriculum framework for the 2008 or 2015 health standards.  It's indicated as "Not Applicable".

That's all for now!

Molly McMahon
Lessons by Molly

Color by Code Sight Words for First and Second Grade

I finished creating three sets of COLOR by CODE sight word sheets.  Each set has a theme that is of high interest to children.  I tried some of the pages out with my little gal and she LOVES the COLOR by CODE sheets!  I was so proud of how she used context skills and picture cues to catch the word "ocean" from the sentence at the bottom of the page.  She needed help with the word "Pacific" and she made a genuine attempt at decoding it phonetically herself before making an appeal to me for help with the word.  The video clip below is her cold read of the sentence.

Each of the COLOR by CODE sheets has a sentence at the bottom of the page for students to read.  The sentences are related to the pictures.  Sight words are willfully included within the sentences so that students can apply word recognition knowledge to reading whole sentences.  First graders may need help reading some of the words - - such as the word "Pacific".

"Little Gal" has such a high energy level and she is practically jumping out of her chair as she reads.  Nonetheless she is soaking up every minute of the reading exercise!

COLOR by CODE sight words sheets can be used as independent work when students are not working directly with the teacher.  The students are coloring according to the key provided on the sheet.  The children find the word and its assigned color.  Then they color accordingly.  The sight words are recurrent on the picture allowing children continuous exposure without a monotonous undertone. 

Color words can be coded with crayons for students that haven't yet learned to recognize them by sight.  There is no previous word knowledge required to complete one of the COLOR by CODE sheets.  This helps minimize incorrect learning while increasing students' sight word knowledge.

I printed the 18 COLOR by CODE sheets and went to my office supply store to have the pages bound as a book.  (They can also be bound with a stapler.)

The "book" format allows students to easily access their COLOR by CODE sheets for independent work time.  If you teach six to nine new sight words per week, the COLOR by CODE sheets could be one of your weekly assignments which would continue over a span of 18 weeks - - one sheet per week.  To maximize word knowledge acquisition, I recommend reviewing each set of words before the page is assigned.

Students that are crazy for coloring will love COLOR by CODE sheets - - like "Little Gal" who begged me for more!  I think she also likes using her newly developed reading skills to read the sentences printed at the bottom of each page and learn what I wrote about the picture!

The three themes that I selected for my COLOR by CODE printable pages are:   Food, Pirate, and Ocean.  Here are a few more photos from the Ocean Theme set.

Each theme includes six printable pages with six to nine targeted sight words used on a page.  I used the first 128 sight words which are commonly known as Fry words.  A complete word list is included on the product description page.

If you are interested in this resource, click the image shown below to view it at my shop.

I also made a version with British spelling that can be found here:

A few months ago I made a COLOR by CODE Earth Day freebie with animal groups.  Feel free to use it as a sample of my COLOR by CODE products.  Here's the link that post where you can find the link to the freebie:  Color by Code Earth Day.  I also wrote some blog posts about strategies to use and pitfalls to avoid when using COLOR by CODE printables.  If you'd like, read them here:  STRATEGIES and PITFALLS.

That's all for now!

Molly McMahon, Lessons by Molly