Fire safety is one of my favorite fall themes. September is National Preparedness Month, and October has Fire Prevention Week and Fire Prevention Day. Either month is a perfect time to focus on fire safety. And it's great to have a mini unit at any time of year to review fire safety ideas.
This unit will be for preschoolers through first graders, although older kids could love some of the activities as well! At Living Montessori Now, I have a long list of free fire safety printables. The free printables include my latest subscriber freebie (a Montessori-inspired fire safety pack). Here, I'm sharing ideas for using free fire safety printables to create Montessori-inspired activities for preschoolers through first graders.
You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Shelves with Fire Safety Themed Activities
You’ll find Montessori-inspired fire safety themed numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
I also have the free printable "Stop, Drop, and Roll Around" Song (subscriber freebie) from Carolyn at Magical Movement Company available on the shelf. An MP3 of the song is a subscriber freebie, too, and we'll be singing that and practicing stopping, dropping, and rolling around to put out clothing that's on fire. You could mix your fire-safety-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special fire safety-themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves this month have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.
Fire Safety Books and Free Fire Safety Bookmarks
Free Printable: Nonfiction Book for Kids: Firefighters from The Measured Mom
Free Printable: Fire Safety Bookmarks by Kennedys Korner at Teachers Pay Teachers
I love the printable Firefighters book because it has photographs and is an easy book for kids to read. There are 3 different types of bookmarks in the bookmark printable. It's a super-easy activity to prepare, yet gives extra cutting practice and a good reminder of fire safety tips. I like the idea of the child giving bookmarks to friends and family members as a way of helping them stay safe, too. A Day in the Life of a Firefighter and Fire! Fire! are both Montessori-friendly books that give interesting information about firefighting. I have a number of other fire safety books in book baskets.
F is for Firefighter Sand Writing Tray
Free Printables: Firefighter Letters for firefighter writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
For the sand tray, I used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though. I had gotten some lovely white sand for making kinetic sand and other projects. I like that it was so easy to make a bright color simply by adding gel food coloring and some water. I spread it on a baking pan to dry overnight. If your sand isn't already sterilized, you might want to heat it up at a low temperature in your oven to partially dry it.
For interest, I added the firefighter from the Safari Ltd. People at Work TOOB.
If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.
Silent e Game and Activities
Free Printables: i_e fire font card (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: I have two options of phonogram cards. I have i_e if you like to introduce fire as a silent e (or bossy e) word. Most do that. Some like to introduce fire as an "ire" word ending (vocalic r). From my experience, almost all children can read "fire" easily as a silent e word, so that's the option I use.
Free Printable: Green Series i_e Letters from MontessoriSoul (Print two sets if you want to use the pictures for movable alphabet word building.)
Free Printable: "Bossy E" Word Cards from Montessori Print Shop
I used the free printable Word Family Four in a Row: Long I Word Families by Ford and Firsties on Teachers Pay Teachers. It got switched to a paid product sometime this week, so it's no longer free. If you want a free game, there are a number of free silent e games on Teachers Pay Teachers.
I love to use glass gems (flat marbles) for activities. These activities were all very simple to prepare. I just added the Multicraft tray and Montessori Services basket for the materials.
Each of these activities could be introduced as a separate activity or tray. We were using this as more of a review (and I have a limited amount of shelf space), so we combined activities on the same tray.
First, we analyzed the i_e fire card. Then Zoey read each of the i_e words in the booklet. After that, we went through the Bossy E cards. They make the concept very clear. "Bossy e makes i say its name."
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| Working with Silent e Words |
After that, we played the four in a row game. We played it as a collaborative game so that Zoey took a turn and then I took a turn tossing the dice and choosing a word to read from that numbered row. After we reached four in a row, Zoey wanted to continue until we filled the whole card!
My Fire Safety Booklet and Fire Safety Task Cards
Free Printable: My Fire Safety Booklet from Teaching Mama Free Printable: Fire Safety What Ifs: Task Cards to Practice Thinking through Emergency Situations by Elementary Matters at Teachers Pay Teachers
"My Fire Safety Booklet" is a cute activity book that reinforces fire safety. The What If Task Cards have lots of important fire safety topics. I would turn the cards over and take turns drawing a card and answering the question. They're great conversation starters!
DIY Dalmatian Cards and Counters and Odd and Even Labeling Activity
Free Printables: Dalmatian Numbers and Odd and Even Labels (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
I love making DIY themed cards and counters to introduce odd and even and add interest and variety to cards and counters. I found these micro (6mm) buttons that are an inviting way to represent the Dalmatian's spots. You need exactly 55 buttons if you want to do the numbers and counters 1-10. The package contains 100 buttons, so there are even some left over.
For Zoey and other kids who are already comfortable with symbol and quantity, I’ll typically use the cards and counters for hands-on addition, subtraction, and other mathematical operations. (See some of my other themed posts for ideas.) But sometimes I like to use the odd and even labels.
In the Montessori-inspired fire safety pack (subscriber freebie), you'll find a page with odd and even labels that can be used with the cards and counters to reinforce the actual words “odd” and “even.” It’s a great way to be sure readers understand the concept of odd and even. I typically use the larger labels for cards and counters. Because the buttons were so tiny, I decided to use the smaller labels (which are normally for hundred board activities).
Fire Engine Hundred Chart Art
Free Printable: Hundred Chart from Worksheetfun.com
Free Printable: Hundred Chart Mystery Picture - Fire Truck (code and control picture) by Jessica Hermann at Teachers Pay Teacher (Note: The actual hundred chart doesn't come with the printable that's shown on the tray. So I added a link to a hundred chart that should work well.
For younger children, I like to use glass gems (flat marbles) and use hundred chart art as color matching/fine-motor work with the added benefit of the child seeing the numbers 1-100 in place. For older children, you can use this as a fun extension to hundred board work where the child colors in the correct colors to reveal the mystery picture. If you want the design to be a mystery picture, just cut out the code and only have your child see that until your child wants to check his or her work.
More Free Fire Safety Printables
Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to free brain and growth mindset printables from around the blogosphere: Montessori-Inspired Fire Safety Unit with Free Printables and Activities. And be sure to subscribe to my email list if you'd like to get an exclusive free printable each month (plus two more awesome freebies right away): Free Printables.More Community Helper Activities and Resources
- Free Fire Safety Printables and Montessori-Inspired Fire Safety Activities
- Talking with Children about 9/11 – Ideas and Activities
- Free Police Printables and Montessori-Inspired Police Activities
- Community Helpers Activity Trays and Sensory Tubs
- Free Ambulance Printables and Montessori-Inspired Ambulance Activities
- Montessori-Friendly Community Helper Resources
- Montessori-Inspired Activities with Community Helper Figures and Free Printables
- “Look for the Helpers” Mister Rogers Word Art Freebie
- Free 9-1-1 Songs for Kids {Non-Scary Emergency Preparedness
- Free Emergency Preparedness Songs for Kids {Character Education Resources}
- Free Water Safety Songs for Kids
- Community Helpers Pinterest Board
Have a happy ... and safe ... autumn!
Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 43 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and grandkids live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.
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