Fire Prevention and Safety: How to Use the Materials

Fire Prevention and Safety is one of the series of Masters of Disaster® materials created by the American Red Cross for teachers, students, and their families across the country. The Masters of Disaster series helps teachers prepare students for weather-related and geologic disasters and for the effects of terrorism and other tragic events. Now, with the addition of Fire Prevention and Safety, the series covers structure fires, too.

This Fire Prevention and Safety curriculum not only helps students learn about how to protect themselves and others from fire, it also helps you meet your required objectives. The curriculum integrates important safety instruction into your regular core subjects-language arts, math, science, and social studies. It supplements the lessons you are already teaching, while providing students with specific information to help them and their families prevent and prepare for fires and stay safe if a fire occurs at home, at school, or in the community.

The curriculum's hands-on activities, demonstrations, and individual and group projects are not sequential. You can use the National Education Standards Charts (included in this book) to select only those lesson plans that fit your curriculum needs and classroom schedule, as well as your students' interests and abilities. All of the materials were written by teachers and educators like you.

EASY CURRICULUM SET-UP
Fire Prevention and Safety is specifically tailored for lower elementary (K-2), upper elementary (3-5), and middle school (6-8) classes.

Each customized curriculum is divided into three sections:

• Facts About Fire and Fire Prevention
  The science of fire and ways to prevent harmful fires
• Fire Preparedness
  Rules and tools to use to be prepared in case of fire
• If a Fire Occurs
  Fire behavior and what to do during and after a fire

The Background for the Teacher provides important information about each of these areas and includes a Fire Safety Checklist for every room in your home. Use this to familiarize yourself with the concepts of fire science, prevention, and preparedness and to help answer students' questions as you work through the curriculum. Any or all of this background may be copied and distributed as you see fit.

With the National Education Standards Charts, you can select the objective you want to teach and match it to specific lesson plans and activities within any of the three sections of the curriculum. Remember, these hands-on activities, demonstrations, and individual and group projects are not sequential. You pick only the ones that work best for you and decide when and how you want to use them.

The Lesson Plans are divided by section. On the introductory page of each lesson plan you will find—

• Key Terms and Concepts: words and phrases used within the lesson plan that are important for the students to understand. All of these words and phrases are included in the glossary. You may wish to list these on the chalkboard or chart paper as your students work through the lesson to help remind them of the concepts they are focusing on. If appropriate, use the terms in subject matter vocabulary lists or for practice in word recognition and decoding.
• Purpose: the basis for the lesson.
• Objectives: what the students will do as they work through the activities in the lesson plan.
• Activities: developmentally appropriate interactions for the whole class, small groups, and individuals. These are listed in the order that you will find them in the lesson plan, but you do not have to use the activities in this order, nor do you have to use all of the activities in the lesson plan. Within a given lesson plan, activities may relate to and refer to each other, but they do not refer to activities in other lesson plans. Each lesson plan stands alone.
• Linking Across the Curriculum: activity extensions that apply to the subject areas listed and can be used for enrichment or reinforcement.

Activities within each lesson plan include:

• Estimated time to set up and conduct the lesson. Please note, these are only estimates. Activities may take more or less time depending on your adaptations and your students' skills and knowledge base.
• List of materials that you will need to conduct the activity, including references to activity sheets that must be copied for groups or individual students.
• Step-by-step instructions for carrying out the activity, including teaching notes when appropriate.
• Wrap-up to tie the information together as the students discuss, share, analyze, or critique.
• Home Connection to invite the students and their families to work together to build fire prevention and safety into their daily lives.
• Activity sheets, found in the Activity Sheets book included with this Lesson Plans book, are reproducible handouts, which are assigned in the lesson plans. The activity sheets reinforce lesson objectives, guide student research, provide information, or require student and family participation.

TEACHING TIPS

• You know your students' skills and abilities best. Adapt the activities and step-by-step procedures to fit your curriculum and classroom needs. For example, if you use this curriculum with younger students or those with special needs, you may choose to turn activity sheets into class discussions or small-group work.
• Many activities in the 3-5 and 6-8 curricula refer to Internet links. Visit www.redcross.org/disaster/masters to find additional information and clickable links to relevant sites organized by grade level, topic, and lesson plan number.
• Firefighters and your local fire department are important prevention and safety resources. In this curriculum, you will be asked to invite firefighters to your classroom or to take students on field trips to the local fire station to become familiar with protective gear and emergency equipment or find out more about careers in firefighting. Although these visits are optional, they are important to help build trust and, for young children, to take away fear. Before beginning these lesson plans, contact your local fire department to find the best ways to coordinate visits and field trips. Be specific about what you want to accomplish.
• You are key in helping students and their families understand emergency response:
  • There are many reasons to leave a building or home—fire, toxic gases, the threat of violence, etc. For this reason, use the term "evacuation drill" instead of "fire drill."
  • Although we generally use 9-1-1 as the universal emergency number in the United States, your community may have different emergency numbers or your school building may require dialing an initial number to get an outside line. Be sure that your students are familiar with local emergency number requirements and that you modify the appropriate lessons and activities to reflect these requirements.
  • An important goal of the curriculum is to engage families-not only students-in fire prevention and safety. Work closely with families and use "Home Connection" suggestions to ensure that the information gets into the community.
• Finally, you should not be concerned that talking about these topics will make children fearful. On the contrary, children are frightened about what is not discussed aloud. Let children speak freely about their concerns-such as how to escape from a second-story window, what to do if they cannot find their dog in a fire situation, etc.-so they will understand that all their concerns should be discussed.