How to Teach Fire Prevention for Preschoolers

Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. October is Fire Prevention Month – practice safety in numbers to ensure your family’s super prepared too!

October is fire prevention month which means we are using this time to bring awareness to our family and home to ensure safety in case of an emergency. So we decided to make this a family event!

How to Teach Fire Prevention for Preschoolers

As we are putting the final touches on our house to move in, one of the most important aspects was making sure we have smoke and carbon monoxide alarms installed on every level of our house – downstairs and upstairs as well as inside and outside of every area we sleep. Alarms provide early warning if there is a fire in our home, which has so much value and peace of mind for this mama. It boggles my mind to think that statistically over 100 million homes in the US are not protected with smoke alarms and 40% of homes do not have a single CO alarm.

As we have been stepping through this process we have been very mindful to talk about the basics with fire prevention with our little preschooler. Her mind is soaking up everything we teach her and now is the time to start with basics.

A few tips to keep in mind –

1. Install alarms TODAY. Don’t wait another day, it’s not worth the risk for you and your family.
2. If you do have alarms be sure to test them regularly and replace the batteries every 6 months or simply upgrade to First Alert’s smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to eliminate the need to replace batteries so often.
3. Remember your alarms don’t last forever so depending on what model/make you have be sure to replace these alarms every 5-10 years.
4. Plan and practice an escape route with your family. Depending on your children’s ages depends on how detailed you can get…but they are never to young to educate them and talk through a plan. Practice this plan in case there is an emergency everyone knows how to get out of the house and where to meet. PRACTICE…PRACTICE…PRACTICE.
5. Be a Super Prepared Family! Be aware of your home and surroundings. The number-one leading cause of house fires is unattended cooking and Carbon monoxide is the #1 cause of accidental death.

Tips on How to Teach Fire Safety to Preschoolers

Start with basics and keep it simple

Teach: your preschool that fire can be dangerous
Practice: If they hear a fire alarm (be sure to sound and practice this) they need to stay where they are.
Set up a designated family meeting spot
Firefighter Simon Says – Teach them what they are supposed to do i.e. stop, drop and roll – or stay put – go outside to the meeting spot – etc.
Talk about the aspects of a fireman (i.e. their gear), a fire truck, fire hydrant etc.
Drills: Have real fire drills from time to time

These ideas should be taught age appropriately as to teach and train rather than instill fear. Use your judgement and wisdom as a parent to your preschooler.

Fire Prevention Preschool Activities

To make this month more focused on learning about fire, fire prevention, fire safety, fire men, fire houses, fire fighters etc. we’ve added some great books to our library list along with a few crafts to make learning fun and engaging.

Library: Go to your library and find books that are centered around firemen, fire stations, fire safety etc.
Role Play: Do some role play at home with your preschoolers – if they love playing with little people figurines or a doll house use those items as role play to talk through fire safety and plans.
Visit a fire station – Call your local fire station to set up a time.
Letter “F”: We have been focusing on the letter F during our preschool time here at home and so I incorporated “f-f-f-fire” and I printed out an F and we glued red and yellow (include orange if you have it!) squares of tissue paper onto the F to make it look like fire! So simple but they love it and it gives you an opportunity to talk even more around the idea of fire safety and fire prevention.
Coloring/Activity Book: Use the activity and coloring pages

Hi I’m Erin a Southern mama from a small town in South Mississippi, owner and chief editor of Sixth Bloom. A blog helping moms capture their kiddos in life, chatting all things home, and parenting, travels and how we navigate through life. You will find me living life to the fullest with my mister (aka husband) and our little three year old preschooler, Miss E, in our 500+ sq foot cottage as we build our dream house on our two acres! We are blessed beyond measure… we love to travel and love being involved in ministry opportunities at our church.