Following the Child's Lead in Play

Well today I learned about following the child's lead in play - and the scuff marks on the knees of my pants will show this!

On Monday I introduced a prop box with fire jackets, helmets, axes, a hose, walkie talkie, pictures of fire, and play fire extinguisher.  Many children dove into dramatic play putting fires out all over the classroom.  Yesterday, my practicum student brought in a prop box that she had made and it had some great ideas.  One was that she made maps of Calgary and the children were reading them and determining where the fire was.

Some comments we recorded were:

• "Oh where is the fire?  Here it is, the fire is in Ranchlands.  We need to go there."
• "I see fire up here.  We need to go this way to put out the fire."
• "We can't go yet!  We haven't looked at the map!  Firefighters look at the map for a long time first.  Then we can go."

 My practicum student also turned the box that she used to store the firefighter materials into a fire engine!  This sturdy plastic container was just the right size for our 3 and 4 year olds and guess what my job was?  To push the fire truck around the classroom as the children followed the map and put out fires.  The knees on my pants were very worn by the end of the day!

 What a wonderful opportunity for following the child's lead in play!  They invited me to join in and as they directed me around the room I could hear their conversations, support their play, and be a part of their learning.  This was a child lead activity and it reminded me of the importance of supporting and scaffolding these experiences.

 We had a fire house dog and it helped rescue other dogs and cats from places.

We put blue streamers and card stock on the art table so that the children could make their own hose to play with and bring home. 

 

 One child discovered this tube in our class.  Yesterday the 4 year old classes were using it as a fire pole for the little firefighters.  This 3 year old child thought it worked great as a fire hose!  It is fun to see the different classes use the materials in creative ways.

Saving animals from trees was important work as well.  We even had a child dress up in our cat costume and call to be rescued.

Working together to put out a fire in this house.  Someone had burned the pizza they were cooking and called the fire department!

 We also learned that smoke can be very dark and flashlights are important tools for firefighters.

I did get a helper in our afternoon class!  She was determined to push her friend around!

Again, not all of the children were engaged in playing firefighters. Some were in the sand table, others painted and explored playdough.  But, I hope that this provides you with some ideas of exploring fire safety and firefighters!