Community Helpers - Day 2, Firefighters

Day 2 of curriculum was all about Firefighters.  The first lesson, called In the Toolbox, had us studying the Theme Poster for the month.  I put the poster up that morning and as opportunities arose with each child I would hand them a Look and Find Glass and ask them to go find it on the poster.  Then I would ask the questions on the back.  We worked through this slowly and one on one.  It was nice.

Second we recited the Rhyme Time Poster, which is Jack Be Nimble.  We talked about what Firefighters wear to protect themselves from the fire.  We built a quick candle stick out of MegaBlocks, put on our fire gear and ran and jumped over the candle stick.

We play and eat around here.  Everyone's got their graham cracker as they jump.  You can see Peter is putting on his fireman's helmet.

Next we discussed what would you use to put out a fire?  Water of course.  They actually all got that pretty quickly.  So then we talked about where firefighters and their firetrucks got the water.  Lachlan said "the hose."  But then I asked where does the hose get the water?  I reminded him of the fire hydrant on the corner of our block and told him, that is where the fireman get the water for their hose.

The art on Firefighter day was a fire hydrant that they colored with markers and then used water droppers to squeeze water on, which caused the ink to drip.  Would have never thought of this way to tie water with art.  But the kids loved it.

Earlier in the day I had punched out the foam stars from their sheets.  I had it sitting out and Lucy and Peter both really wanted to try to put the stars back in, just like a puzzle.  They both worked on this for quite some time.  It was nice to get some use out of, what would normally, just be the waste.

In the last lesson we were addressing the colors of the month as well as the shape.  We had a bunch of yellow and orange stars which are also the same colors in the flame of a fire.  The kids had already been building something with the MegaBlocks again.  So I walked up and dumped the stars on their creation.  "Oh, no, it's on fire!"  Put the fire out by removing the stars.  Put the orange ones in here and the yellow in here.  It worked out so perfect.