Hero Gear! Lesson Plan

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What We Are Learning

 

Health and Safety Focus:

fire safety

 

Social Studies Focus:

community helpers

 

Theme Vocabulary:

heroes, gear, tool, breathing mask, helmet, hose, ladder, siren

 

Skills We’re Practicing:

group discussion, critical thinking, vocabulary, categorizing

  • Go on a trip to a firehouse with Pete the Cat in Pete the Cat: Firefighter Pete by James Dean. Read the book before the issue as an introduction to firefighters, or read it afterward to reinforce concepts.

Ladder Crawl!

Materials: none

  • Fighting fires takes teamwork. So does this activity!
  • Have children create a “human ladder” on the floor. First, pair them up. Then have each pair sit facing each other with legs straight, touching the soles of their shoes together to make “rungs.” Keep one foot of space between pairs. 
  • The first pair stands up, and each child “climbs” the rungs in a bear crawl position. When they reach the end, they sit and become a rung again. Then it’s time for the next pair to “climb”!
  • For an added challenge, children can jump over the rungs! teamwork/gross-motor skills

Clifford Says, “Be a Firefighter!”

Materials: none

  • Give Simon Says a fire-safety twist!
  • Tell children to follow your directions to pretend to be firefighters—but only if Clifford says so.
  • Give directives, like “Clifford says, ‘Put on your firefighter helmet.’” Then give a directive without “Clifford says.” Remind children not to move unless Clifford says! listening/vocabulary

Materials: crayons, glue, craft sticks, precut shapes—one red rectangle, two black circles, one red square, and one white square (a little smaller than the red square) per fire truck

  • With this activity, children make an adorable fire truck while practicing positional words! 
  • Distribute materials to children. Tell them that they’ll need to use their “listening ears” to follow the directions. 
  • Use positional words to direct them:

• Glue the rectangle to the middle.
• Glue the circles under the rectangle to make wheels.
• Glue the red square next to the rectangle.
• Glue the white square inside the red square.

  • Next have children make a ladder by gluing two craft sticks parallel to each other to the side of the fire truck and drawing lines between them.
  • The final step is to draw themselves as the driver of the truck. They will have fun imagining themselves as real live firefighters! shapes/positional words/fine-motor skills