While I admit that October is my favorite month to teach thematically (pumpkins, bats, spiders, Halloween… bring on all of my favorites!), Fire Safety Week completely crept up on me this year! I shared a few fire safety activities and crafts over on Instagram, which I saved to my October highlight (in case you are interested in a detailed description).
FIRE TRUCK CRAFT
I also mentioned on Instagram how I always have my students complete some sort of craft on Fridays. Crafting is just as important as our academic subjects. It helps build fine motor control, scissor skills, visual-spatial relationships and the ability to listen to and follow directions. Plus, it’s a great way to solidify and display our academic learning.
We make this 🚒 fire truck craft 🚒 at the end of Fire Safety Week.
FIRE TRUCK ANCHOR CHART
To kick off the week, we label our fire truck anchor chart. I’m just going to say that project and trace is the most incredible hack for drawing on anchor charts, but shhhh… 🤫 don’t go telling my secret to anyone!
First, we label each part of the truck with just words. While we are doing this, we practice getting our lips ready, making the beginning sound and checking the picture for something that begins with that sound.
Once we’ve labeled all of the parts of the fire truck, I model how to write a sentence using the words we have learned from our word wall. I demonstrate how to begin with a capital letter, how to put spaces between the words, how to use the labels on our anchor chart to spell the last word in the sentence, and how to end with a period. Here’s a look at the fire truck I projected and traced for our anchor chart.
Then, I group the students and give them each one part of the fire truck to label with a sentence. Each person in the group writes one word in the sentence. When everyone is finished, I hold up a sentence to read. Again, we practice our “Lips the Fish” reading strategy by getting our lips ready for the last word in the sentence. After we have read that sentence, we add it to our anchor chart.
FIRE SAFETY SENTENCES
We also practice these same sight words and reading strategy as we read our “I Can See Fire!” emergent reader. Each day, we focus on a different skill. One day we find the word “can.” Another day, we find the word “see.” Then, we find the word “the.” We’ll also find the periods and discuss the meaning of the exclamation point on the last page.
During our whole group reading block time, the students will help me mix and fix the same sentences from our emergent reader. Then, I’ll throw these sentences into our pocket chart center for the students to practice more.
You see… this little craft is the culmination of some BIG learning that has taken place all week!
FIRE SAFETY RULES SHAPE BOOK
Another project we work on each day during Fire Safety Week is our 🔥 “Fire Safety Rules” 🔥 interactive shape book.
The students will do something different on each page to help them better remember the 11 fire safety prevention tips. Each day, we’ll complete one to two pages of the book.
At the end of the week, we’ll have a handy dandy rule book!
If you’re interested in all of these fire safety activities, I’ve bundled them HERE!
FIREFIGHTER THANK YOU CARD
We also take some time during our Writing block to write a thank you card to our local firefighters. Since our fire station is right across the street from school, we hand deliver our cards.
You can grab these FREE cards below! Just fill out the form at the end of this post.
I hope these last minute fire safety activities will help you during Fire Safety Week! Head on over to our teacher community, and let us know what you have planned for this week!
More Fire Safety Activities and Crafts
Take a closer look at these simple fire safety rules for kids and grab the FREE “Fire Safety Expert” helmet!
Plus, grab this FREE firefighter circle map!
Would love the fire fighter thank you notes for our Patriot Day assembly coming up!