Learning How to Be Safe

Safety can be a challenging thing to teach preschoolers.  There is a fine line about learning ways to be safe without causing children to be anxious.  We try to take the topics and present them through fun activities that hopefully teach and prepare them for real life possibilities.

• We learned about "Yum and Yuck" things to eat and read a silly story called, "Yummy and Yucky"
• "Touch and Don't Touch" not only included hot or sharp things, but also guns.  We instructed the children to ALWAYS run away if they saw a gun and to go get a grown up.  They should NEVER touch a gun.  A few of the children mentioned that some of their parents had told them the same thing.  Kuddos to you!!  
• We learned about what an emergency is and practiced how to call 911 if you need help.  We sang songs about traffic lights, buckling up our seat belts, and how to cross the street.
• Learning how to "stop, drop, and roll" while covering your eyes was a very important skill to practice, along with crawling and staying low if there is smoke and to always feel a door to see if it is hot before you open it.  If the door is hot, don't open the door because there is fire on the other side!  
• We talked about throwing your stuffed animals out your bedroom window if you are stuck inside so the firefighters know to look for you.  Most importantly, we learned that you NEVER run or hide from the firefighter because they are there to help you.
• Another tip we gave kids, was that if they ever lose their parent or grow-up in a store, that they should go to the cashiers or the people who check you out and you give your money to.  This way they can be assured that they will locate someone who will help them.

As part of our safety unit, we learn about Community Helpers and how they help us with every day things.  Of course the kids favorites are firefighters, police officers, doctors, and construction workers!  We sang a lot of songs, did fingerplays and guessing games, and learned about the tools everyone needs to do their jobs.  We got to play firefighters and put out flames by locating paper water blobs in the room and then running up to the board to find the same letter match and put out the flames!  "Red Light, Green Light" was a favorite game as was driving through town to find the color and number on the houses.

FYI to all of you... It is never too early to have children begin to learn their addresses and phone numbers!  Try teaching it to them in a sing song pattern or make up a little song or rhyme.  You might want to think of teaching your children your cell phone numbers instead of home numbers as most people are more easily reached by cell.

A Concord Police Officer came to visit the AM kids and to talk briefly about being safe.  Of course the biggest hit was getting to see his police car.  Both classes also got to enjoy a bus ride around the Ripley parking lots.  You should have seen the joy in their faces and excitement!  Teachers got a little dizzy going around and around the parking lots!

Making traffic light cookies, playing in the dramatic play/pretend airline ticket counter, putting out flames in our water table with squirt bottles, and the traffic light car race game were some of the hits of our Safety Unit.