We're the Safety Kids

After completing full Science Units on worms, frogs, and eagles, as well as our three-week Geography Unit on the United States of America, it was finally time for our first Special Unit Class. And our topic for this special unit: Safety.

In brief, our safety unit looked like this:

Day 1
Personal safety lessons. We used the Brite Music Safety Kids CD to talk about stranger danger, personal space, using the buddy system, etc. That night for family home evening we also talked about safety--spiritual safety. We made safety signs to hang all over our house and remind us to be safe.



Day 2 and 3
Personal information packets. I found an awesome web-site that allows you to make tracing sheets out of any text that you choose. Using this website, I put together tracing packets to help the kids learn to write their full names--first, middle, and last, their full address, and their phone number.

Day 4
Calling 911. After going over all of their personal information, we talked this day about when, why, and how to make emergency phone calls. When Nick got home from work we used our cell phones to practice making emergency calls. I put scenarios in a dish and the kids would pull them out, have Nick read them to him, and then call 911 on his phone. After the kids dialed Nick would clear the number and call me. Then I would pretend to be the rescue dispatcher asking what was wrong and having the kids give me their information over the phone. The kids were actually pretty nervous while we were doing this, acting like they were really in trouble of one kind of another. As a result, I think i t was a really beneficial exercise.

Day 5
Fire Safety. We talked about all the ins and outs of fire safety. We talked about playing with fire, fire hazards in our home, and went over and over and over again Stop, Drop, and Roll.

Day 6
Fire Station field trip. We were very lucky to get a private tour of the local fire station with a few of our close friends. We actually went on their equipment checking day too, so the kids got an up close and personal look at all of the firefighters trucks and tools. They loved it. That night for family home evening we again tied it into our safety unit setting our family meeting place, checking our smoke detectors, and running fire drills with mock fires in different locations in our house. One really important part of this for us was teaching the kids how to get out of their windows. It made me realize how lucky we are each and every day that we live free of a fire in our home. I wish we could have somehow found someone who had lost their home in a fire that we could have talked to and given help to. I think that would have been a nice way to cap off the unit.

Here are some of our Fire Station Field Trip Photos: