Optional add-on · Safety · 30 min · Fits Week 21
Fire Safety, Part 2: Stop, Drop and Roll, and Tools for Grown-Ups
Objective: Your child will show stop, drop and roll, explain that matches and lighters are tools for grown-ups only and tell a grown-up if they find one, and start a family smoke alarm check for each quarter.
Materials: a soft rug or mat, an empty matchbox or a picture of a lighter (no real matches or lighters), your escape map from Part 1, pencil, calendar
Helps with topics listed by: New York, Pennsylvania, California
Warm-Up: Remember Our Plan (5 min)
Take out the escape map from Part 1. Ask your child to point to two ways out of their bedroom and to the meeting place, and to say the three rules: get low and go, feel the door, get out and stay out.
Mini-Lesson and Practice: Stop, Drop and Roll (10 min)
Explain: 'If your clothes ever catch fire, running makes the fire bigger. Instead you stop, drop and roll.' Show each step on the rug: STOP where you are; DROP to the ground and cover your face with your hands; ROLL over and over, back and forth, until the fire is out. Have your child practice three times while you call out the steps. Then add: 'After that, cool a burn with cool water and tell a grown-up right away.' Make it clear this is only for when clothes are on fire. For any other fire, the rule is still get out and stay out.
Mini-Lesson: Tools for Grown-Ups (10 min)
Show the empty matchbox or the picture. Say: 'Matches and lighters are tools, like a sharp knife. They are for grown-ups only. If you ever find one, do not touch it. Leave it where it is and tell a grown-up.' Practice with a quick role-play: hide the empty box under a cushion and let your child 'find' it. They should leave it, walk to you and say, 'I found a lighter (or matches) by the couch.' Praise them. Tell your child where your family keeps matches and lighters: up high or locked, out of reach. Add that candles and stoves are also used only with a grown-up.
Family Activity: Our Smoke Alarm Check (5 min)
Plan a 'check your smoke alarm with a grown-up' time for each quarter: Week 1, Week 10, Week 19 and Week 28 (or the first week of each quarter in your own calendar). Write them on the calendar together. At each check, a grown-up presses the test button on every alarm while your child listens, you walk the escape map once, and your child fills in one row of the check chart on their practice page. Fire safety groups advise testing smoke alarms once a month, so keep testing monthly on your own; the quarterly check is the time your child joins in.