Firefighters, by Norma Simon

This book is a good introduction to the many responsibilities of being a firefighter.

Materials

Any firefighter dramatic play materials you may have
Books or pictures of real fire persons in their fire fighting clothes, uniforms.
2-3 turkey basters
Old hose cut into 3 foot sections

Vocabulary

Siren (the loud sounds that a fire truck or police car makes)
Masks (object that covers the firefighter’s face that allows them to breathe smoky air)
Teamwork (working together, i.e. to put out a fire)

Before Reading the Story

With the children make a knowledge chart about what they know about firefighters and fire safety. Do they know what a fireman wears to fight a fire, and why? Do they know what the fireman connects his hose to for water supply?

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes. AND Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Reading the Story

Take your time going through the pages and let the children discuss and ask questions as you read.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Notice the page where the doctors/paramedics are helping make sure everyone is safe. Tell the children that firefighters and doctors/paramedics are community helpers. Ask the children if they can think of any other community helpers.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Talk to the children about what you school’s procedures are if the fire alarm was to go off. If appropriate, do a practice fire drill walking and talking through all the steps.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances and activities.

Discovery

Put out pictures and books of real fire persons in their fire fighting outfits. Try to especially find a picture of a fireman in his mask, as these are often frightening to the children. Take time to look through the materials with the children and answer any questions they may have. Ask them open-ended questions about the pictures and see if they can answer with logic and insight.

Literacy/’Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Music and Movement

Do the fingerplay 10 Brave Firefighters

Ten brave firefighters sleeping in a row.

(hands by head sleeping)

Ding, dong, goes the bell

(pull the bell cord)

and down the pole they go.

(with hands together slide down the pole)

Off on the engine, oh, oh, oh!

(steer the fire engine)

Using the big hose, so, so, so.

(make a nozzle with hands to spray thehose)

When all the fire’s out, home so slow.

(walk very slow)

Back to bed, all in a row.

(hands by head sleeping)

Let’s count the ten brave firemen.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances. AND Mathematics/Numbers & operation; develops increasing ability to count to ten and beyond.

Blocks

Bring out any fire trucks that you have and encourage the children to build a firehouse.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads and using scissors.

Art

Finger-paint with red and yellow finger-paint. Teach the children to make zigzag lines that look like fire. Encourage them to draw a house and then make fire all around. Talk about the kinds of lines that they make (zigzag, curved, looped, straight, wiggly, etc.).

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken language.

Library and Writing

Give each child a copy of the fire hat picture. Encourage them to write their name on their hat. Let the children cut them out and staple onto a sentence strip to wear.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles and shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, ato using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develop[s growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Sand and Water

Add water to the table. Put out turkey basters and show the children how to suck up the water and then spray it out. Give the children either a small box to spray or a bowl to fill. The object is to suck up the water and then spray it out.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develop[s growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic Play

Add a fireman prop box. This can include simple paper shaped fire hats or store bought fire suits. Include several pieces of old hose that has been cut into three foot lengths. Add gloves and boots if you have them.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulatives

Play fireman memory. Cut out 2 sets and contact the fire fighter cards. Flip them upside down and take turns flipping them over to make matches.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Outdoor Play

Let the children carry buckets of water. You can either let them fill buckets and pour them into the sand or dirt for digging or you can have a bucket brigade relay game.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, nad balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Transitions

The book talks about how the fire fighters must look around and ask questions about how the fire might have started. As the children prepare to go to the next activity, ask questions about personal safety, especially fire safety. (If you heard the fire alarm, what would you do? If you smelled smoke what would you do? Do we run or walk during a fire drill? )

Resources

Dear Parent-

Today we talked about fire safety. It is important that your child understand that they should not hide in a closet or under a bed in the event of a fire. Talk to your child about this scary yet important topic so that they know what and where to go if ever a fire were to occur ij your home. Have a plan and include your child.

Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton

Materials

Small bag of flour
Small cars or construction vehicles
Extra hats, mittens, and scarves
Stack of newspaper ripped in half
cotton balls and several pinching clothespins

Vocabulary

Crawler Tractor (a tractor type vehicle that has a continuous roller instead of wheels)
Steadily (slowly and gradually not stopping along the way)

Introducing the Story

Ask the children to raise their hands if they like to play I the snow. Let them talk about some of the things they like to do in the snow. Next tell them that some people have to work in the snow. Getting to work can be very hard if there is a lot of snow on the ground. Our story today is about a helper named Katy who moves all the snow from the roads. I wonder how she does it? Let children have a chance to respond if they choose to.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature. AND Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

While reading, stop on the page after you read, “Katy had to stay home, not enough snow”. Ask the children how they think Katy might have felt. As Katy begins shoveling out the town, encourage the children to repeat ‘Follow me!” along with Katy.

Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that Katy was big and strong and moved all the snow so that the adults could go to work and the buses and cars could bring children to school. Katy is kind of a hero and a good friend to the whole town. Ask the children if they have ever helped someone to do something hard. Listen as they tell about their own experiences. (One time I helped my brother to shovel the snow on our sidewalk. I helped my grandma to make a cake. I had to stir and stir. I was really good).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Music and Movement

Play Follow the Leader; making an obstacle course. Have the children follow you around, under, over, beside, behind, across, and inside parts of your classroom, playground, and school.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and position of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

Discovery

Bring in a container of snow and watch as it melts. Do you see any objects in the snow? What happens to the snow? When the snow has melted, tell the children that you are going to put it back outside. Ask them what they think will happen to the melted snow now? When it is frozen, bring it back inside for the children to watch it melt again. What happened to the melted snow? Did it turn back into snow?

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Blocks

Add vehicles and encourage the children to make roads by laying blocks end to end for them to drive upon. Encourage the children to make some of the buildings that are in and around town (police station, library, grocery store, etc.). Bring index cards, markers, and tape over so that the children can make signs to go with the buildings if they choose to.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community. AND Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying and writing familiar words such as their own name.

Art

Give the children pieces of construction paper to draw houses. Encourage them to add windows and a door as well as write their name on their house. When all have finished making a house, put them together on a map type background and hang low on the wall. Label each child’s house so they can use their finger to trace how to get from their house to a friends house.

Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters grouped to form words, and that words are separated by spaces.

Sand and Water

Dump the flour into the sand and water table today and pretend that it is snow. The children can use small vehicles or even shovels to pretend to push the snow aside. I would recommend that the children wear smocks and though flour is easy to wash from clothes, it is messy. Remind the children to not add water to the table!

Social & Emotional Development/Self Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and to use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully. AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Library and Writing

Encourage the children to try to draw maps on how to get to the playground from your classroom or how your room is divided into centers (birds eye view)

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community.

Dramatic Play

Bring in extra hats, mittens, and scarves so the children can pretend to go play out in the snow. Give them ½ sheets of newspaper and show them how to crumple it up into a ball. These make fun and safe snowballs for a snowball/paper fight.

Creative Arts/Drama; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulaties

Put out a bowl of cotton balls along with a few clothespins or tongs. Label 5 plastic cups 1-5 with marker. Explain to the children that they must use the tongs to put the correct number of snowballs into each cup by using the clothespins or tongs. Encourage them to work in pairs. One child can put the snowballs into the cups and the other child can count them as they go in. When they have filled the cups, empty them back into the bowl and trade places as picker upper and counter.

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

If there is snow on the playground, challenge the children to roll really large snowballs (like you are making a snowman). As they work, tell them that they must be as strong as Katy like in the story.

Physical Health & Development/Large Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements.

Transitions

Ask each child to name something they like to do on snowy days as they line up or move to the next activity (I like to eat snow. I like to watch cartoons.). Encourage the children to answer using complete sentences.

Dear Parents, Today we read a book about a helper named Katy who plowed all the snow from the streets of town. Encourage your child to be a helper around the house. Thank them for their service and let them know that they are appreciated.

I Stink! By Kate and Jim McMullan

This story is told by the garbage truck as he rolls through his day/night. Find out what a garbage truck does, and how much he likes this stinky job.

Materials

Garbage and Recycle cards
Several shoe boxes

Vocabulary

Doubles-two of everything
Hopper-where you throw the garbage into the truck
Compacted-squished till really small

Before Reading the Story

Play I’m thinking of a community helper. Think of several community helpers and make statements about their work. Have the children guess who you are thinking of. Do the Garbage collector last and then introduce the story. (I’m thinking of a community helper who wears a uniform with a star on it. This person helps keep us safe. This person is someone we can call upon when we are scared or in danger. Police. I’m thinking of a community helper who works in a building full of books. This person sometimes has storytimes for children. This person lets you check out books if you have a special card with your name on it. Librarian. I’m thinking of a community helper who helps keep our streets and neighborhoods clean. This person drives a big truck that picks up our garbage and takes it to the dump. This person has a very stinky job. Garbage collector).

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops a growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Reading the Story

On the page where the truck asks, “Did I wake you?” Use your hands to show the squeezing, crushing, mashing, smashing motions. When doing the alphabet soup pages, point to the letter and say A is for _____ and let the children help name the items. As you do the alphabet pages make a face like it stinks, hold your nose, say eww, have fun with it. On the last page; Ask the children what they think would happen if no one ever picked up the garbage? Ask them where they think the barge/boat will take all the garbage?

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress is associating the names of letters with their shape and sound.

After Reading the Story

Does your school recycle? If so, talk about how important it is as it helps keep the garbage dump from getting too filled. If you do not, talk with the children about doing some classroom recycling. Can they save drawing paper by using both sides? And if they use paper for cutting, save the scraps for collaging. Can you save plastic cups and use them as paint cups later?

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Discovery

Put some of your breakfast leftovers into a zip lock bag and hang it in the classroom. Later in the day, open up the bag and let the children smell it. Reseal the bag and leave it over night. Ask the children to guess/hypothesis what they think is going to happen to it? Check it out the next morning and how ever many you choose to after that. Warning-some stink bombs are quite noxious so open with caution.

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to describe and discuss predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on past experiences.

Do you know the day the garbage man comes to your school? Take the children out to watch as the garbage man collects your schools trash.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops a growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Share this video about recycling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jQ7y_qQYUA

Music and Movement

Sing, I Like To Eat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNMknj0PyE

I like to eat, I like to eat, apples and bananas

I like to eat, I like to eat, apples and bananas.

Now as you sing, change all the vowel sounds to /A/ sounds

A lAte taA A te, A lAte tA Ate, Apples and bAnAnAs

Now to short /a/ sound, then /E/, /e/,/I/,/i/,etc.

Or Sing it learning the sign language that goes along with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R7kkTNQdYw

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progress in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

Blocks

Add shoe boxes to the center. Tell the children to pretend that it is the garbage truck. How many bags/blocks of garbage can they fit in their truck?

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness if numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Art

Use old scraps of paper, scissors, and glue today to collage.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Add a scent to playdough, preferably one that smells good.

Sand and Water

Add alphabet letters to the sand (the magnetic refrigerator kind work well) and a small box or container. Let the children pretend the container is the garbage truck and they can look for letter in the sand to fill it. As they fill their truck with letters, ask them if they can name the letters that they have found.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their name.

If you have a small magnetic board that you can write on; use a permanent marker to trace around each magnetic letter. As the children find a letter they must put it onto the correct letter shape drawn on the magnet board.

Library and Writing

Give each child a copy of the garbage truck maze and encourage them to follow the path from beginning to end. Can they stay within the lines of the path? Did they follow the path from beginning to end? Have each child write their name upon their page.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology. AND Literacy/Early Writing; experiments with a growing variety of writing tools and materials, such as pencils, crayons, and computers.

Dramatic Play

Tell the children that today is cleaning day in the dramatic center. Give the children damp paper towels and have them empty the shelves and wipe them. Add a garbage container and ask the children to help you throw away anything that is broken or chewed upon. I do b not have them throw things directly into the garbage when we do this because some children just like to throw things away. Use a basket or cubby that you can go through later to make sure that the garbage is truly garbage.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops a growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Math and Manipulatives

Garbage verses Recycle cards. Put the cards on the table and challenge the children to sort them by things that can be recycled and things that are thrown away.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in a series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Outdoor Play

Tell the children that you going to roll like wheels of the garbage truck. Let the children experiment with different types of rolling. Can the make their body long and straight and roll? Can they curl up and roll into a somersault? Can they roll a hula-hoop on its edge? Can they roll a ball? Can you roll a ball to them and they kick it? What other things can they children find to roll?

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; chooses to participate in an increasing variety of tasks and activities.

Transitions

Ask each child to name something they think is stinky as they go off to the next activity. Be prepared for some silly answers and lots of giggles. (I once had a child who said another child’s fart. I told the child everyone farts and sometimes I bet yours are stinky too. Just be prepared for this kind of answer to deflect it off the child mentioned and back on the child who said it).

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Dear Parent, Today we read a story about the garbage truck and how he comes to collect our garbage each week. If you have garbage service, encourage your child to help take the garbage out to the can. If you do not, you can still have your child help by emptying your trash bins in the house. And don’t forget to recycle!

Resources