Last Friday (10/8), 76 kindergartners (in three groups) eagerly entered the fire hall. They came to the station wearing their paper helmets and with an eagerness to learn and see the fire trucks.
With the help of fire department members:
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| Scott Prachar |
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| Ben Dvorak |
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| Kyle Gustafson |
...the kids learned the proper way to Stop, Drop, Cover Your Eyes and Roll; Get Out and Stay Out when there's a fire; and we took them on a tour of the station. I squeeze as much as I can in the 45 minutes I get to spend with them. They never cease to amaze me with their level of knowledge and questions (and of course the stories they can tell too). They are like sponges and soak in everything I am teaching them.
When we tour the station, I ask the kids to count how many fire trucks we have in the station (there are seven), to find more air tanks for our air packs, and to find the axes and ladders. I show them the difference between a regular hose nozzle that they would use and the BIG nozzle a firefighter uses to put out the fire. They even get to see where we hang our hoses to dry after a fire. The most exciting thing for the kids to do is walking through the cab of our biggest engine!
Saturday brought about another adventure at the fire hall. The family and friends of my husband, Kim, gathered to clean our section of freeway. This is something we do twice a year. We adopted the two mile stretch of freeway in which Kim's accident happened. We meet in the morning for coffee and donuts and then head out to clean. The freeway is a frustrating place for me to be. Even though we have a fire truck and a cop car watching and protecting us on the road, I still don't feel safe out there. That stretch of freeway claimed one of our own and I wouldn't want that to happen EVER again to anyone. Motorist who don't move over a lane away from the emergency vehicles (or even us for that matter) drive me insane! My anger comes out and I would REALLY like to throw a rock at the cars that don't move over. It is an educational experience to be out there when traffic is moving at 70+ MPH. I applaud the trucking companies that have taught their drivers to move over! Semi trucks ALWAYS moved over to the adjacent lane...and if they were unable to move over, they SLOWED down before cruising past us. Once we were done with the clean-up, we enjoyed a potluck lunch!
Monday morning was back to the fire hall. We traveled to the school to visit with the second graders. The second grade has four sections. We combine two together for our session with them. I created a Fire Safety Jeopardy game for them to play. We divided the kids into three teams to play jeopardy. It was the first time I used the Jeopardy game with a class. I believe it went well! The kids seemed to have fun! I told them to go home after school and ask their parents to check the smoke detectors in their house (Do THIS once a month).
I am grateful to the school for allowing us to come in and teach fire safety to the kids. Some schools do not allow that. I'm also grateful for teachers who believe this is an important subject for the kids to know. As long as the boys at the fire department need me to help out with fire prevention week...I'll keep doing it.
Here is the final Jeopardy question I posed to the second graders:
Who can best prevent fires from occurring?
- A: Men, Women and Children
- B: Firefighters
- C: Police Officers
- D: Teachers
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