Simple Steps for Top-Notch Fire Safety Presentations for Kids

By Mike Saunders

Teaching fire safety to kids can be a lot of fun, but sometimes it can be quite a challenge. With some preparation, with a little legwork, and by not thinking like our usual adult selves, we can face this challenge and have fun doing it. If you can relate to the kids and know some of the things they’re into, you can become more of a friend to them–make a connection, if you will–and that is a very important part of your job as a fire safety educator.

Connecting with kids
Here is your assignment. Get in your Big Red Truck (BRT) and go to a local playground and spend some time with kids. Make sure to have a notebook with you, because the information you gather will be “gold” in helping you prepare your fire safety presentations. You shouldn’t have any problem getting the kids to notice you. Usually showing up in the BRT gets plenty of attention. Let the kids check out the apparatus, and hang out for a few minutes. While you’re doing this, ask them what interests them: What shows do they watch? Who is a popular cartoon character? Which toys are popular–action figures, electronic games, books, and so on? Once they start sharing, you need to write everything down so you can digest it all later.

After a couple of trips out, you will start to see patterns in many of the answers. These are the things you can incorporate into your presentation to help connect with the kids you’re teaching. For example, as you hold up an air mask and describe the materials it’s made out of, instead of technical speak, you could say something like “This is an air mask. Look at what it’s made of–plastic, rubber, and cloth. What else is made out of this same stuff?” Give them a few seconds of guessing, and then tell them, “Your toys!” Think about it. The toys they got for Christmas–cars, dolls, games (use specific toy and character names from the notes you made at the playground)-they’re made out of the same stuff, right? They will be surprised to hear you mention things they’re familiar with like the toys and characters they play with and watch. It helps them get comfortable with you as a friend.

Try to “think like a kid”
Try for a minute to remember when you were a child. Were you afraid of anything–monsters, strangers, the dark? Many children are terrified of a firefighter in full turnouts with an air bottle on carrying tools. What looks normal and everyday to us looks like a monster to some of these kids. And then you don your mask and go “on air.” Yikes! During your presentation, you might try to describe being trapped in a smoke-filled room: “It’s very dark! It’s getting really hot! You can’t see! It’s hard to breath in the smoke! There is a roaring sound and glass breaking! You don’t know what to do!” This is a scary thing for anyone to imagine, kid or not.

You need to talk about these things, but in a productive way. Talk about what to do in this situation. Some kids want to hide when they get scared. We know this is a really bad idea. Using the previous descriptions, you could proceed like this: “So we wake up to the sound of the smoke detector, now what? Jump out of bed, run down the hallway, and jump out the window to safety? What do we do? Get out of bed, and check the door? The door is really hot, what does that mean? The fire is outside the door? Should you open it? What should you do? Use your second exit, maybe your window. Great, open the window, and escape to your meeting place. But what if you can’t open the window, it’s nailed shut, you can’t operate the locks. You can’t get out. You’re stuck in this room. Now what? Some might suggest breaking it out. That might work. But what if they’re on the third floor so they can’t get out anyway? It’s dark, hot, and getting really scary, what do we do? Maybe we could climb on the bed and pull the covers up over our heads? What about go into the closet? Behind the toy box? How about if we get under the bed, and pull all of our toys and blankets in around us and make a nice safe fort? Can the fire find us then? What about the firefighter when he comes in crawling on the floor, can he find you? Pretty scary stuff!”

You need to come up with a way to cover this material knowing they will be a little scared hearing some of these things. They need to trust you completely! That’s why it is so important to connect with them early and be able to think like a kid when you put your presentation together.

Make the plan
Now you can start to plan your presentation. Your material needs to be delivered on each individual grade level. You can’t have a “canned” presentation for all of the grades or age groups. You can have one plan, but it needs flexibility so you can tailor it to different levels. Some kids like a high-tempo presentation; with other kids, you need to slow down a bit and get more intimate. Decide beforehand what will be included and what won’t. Usually around 30 minutes is a pretty good length of time to speak–long enough to cover quite a bit of material but not so long that the kids get bored. I’ve found that trying to limit presentations to one class or group of 20 or so children at a time produces excellent results.

While you give the presentation, look for the children’s reactions. Adjust your style as you proceed. You can get more in-depth or do more of a “show and tell” and still cover the same material–it’s all in the delivery. Let the audience dictate how you present; just read the signals the kids send you.

You need to be part mind reader, superhero, friend, playmate, and teacher. It’s not really that complicated. Fire prevention should not be about the kids coming to look at a BRT asking a couple of questions about the tools or hose and then going back to class. It should be a learning experience for the kids and you! Connect with the kids. Help them understand your message. Hopefully, they will take something from your presentation. Have fun together!

Michael Saunders has been a firefighter with the Bath (NY) Volunteer Fire Department for seven years and has been active in fire safety education.

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