Just in time for the Fire Prevention Month (October) and Fire Prevention Week (October 8-14), the Nation Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has released a plethora of outstanding resources for kids, parents, and educators to assist in teaching children the importance of fire safety. Additionally, this can be a great benefit to health educators across the nation! Most of the resources integrate their kid-friendly mascot, Sparky the Fire Dog.
For children, the NFPA has created Sparky.org. This interactive website has fire prevention videos, games, and activities. In addition, there is an entire section about firetrucks which is totally awesome! There are interactives and videos that explain all about the different parts to the firetrucks. If your kids are anything like mine, they are totally fascinated by the “big red machines” and love learning about how they operate! Another favorite is the activities section. Limiting screen time is always a concern of mine so having fire prevention activities for students to color, cut, and think are a huge asset. A big bonus is that many of the activities are “seasonal” so you can come back during the school year to revisit fire prevention during the holiday season when space heaters and electrical outlet overload can be a concern. There are links off of Sparky.org for parents and educators, too!
Kids also benefit from a new web-based app created by the NFPA called Sparky’s Fun House. This interactive uses math and spelling games to reinforce fire prevention with students in grades K-2. There’s a virtual dunk tank, Bot Blater, and Word Coaster interactives that are standards-aligned and integrate skills from other subject areas into fire prevention. Children can use the interactive at home or at school and no log in is required!
Sparky’s Schoolhouse is the NFPA’s teacher website for all things fire prevention. Teachers will find videos, lessons, and grade level appropriate resources for PreK-5th grade students. All of the resources are housed in Sparky’s Schoolhouse and downloadable. In addition, there are links to apps that can be accessed for tablet use. New for 2017 are a pile of fire prevention resources in Sparky’s Schoolhouse including a teacher’s guide to Fire Prevention Week and templates for students and parents to design an emergency escape plan. Resources are available in both English and Spanish to help with communications home.
Be sure to check out these great Fire Prevention Week resources from the National Fire Protection Association and share them with other teachers!