Fire Safety Tips for Kids

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In the event of a fire, would your kids know what to do? Do you have a fire safety plan for your home or classroom? It’s important to teach your preschoolers about fire safety and regularly review your fire safety plan with them to prepare for possible emergencies. 

Talking with kids about what to expect and practicing ahead of time will help keep your kids safe if there is a real fire. Keep reading for more tips about explaining fire safety to your preschoolers and making your own fire safety plan for your family or classroom. Plus, some extra fun fire safety printables for preschool and kindergarten kiddos.

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Tips for Teaching Kids About Fire Safety

How do you explain fire safety to preschoolers? Preschoolers love learning new things, so if you approach fire safety lessons calmly, your kids will be excited to learn about fire, fire safety plans, and firefighters too. Not sure where to begin? Here are some tips to help you get started:

Make a Fire Safety Plan

A fire safety plan is an important way to ensure everyone stays safe in the event of a fire. You can enlist your kids’ help when planning a path to safety and choosing a safe place to wait outside your home.

In the classroom, the safest route out of the building is usually mapped out for you. Be sure to go over the exit strategy often enough that your students will be familiar with the safest way to exit the building.

What should a fire safety plan include? Begin by establishing two ways out of every room in your home. Ask yourself these questions:

• How can I get out of this room if there is a fire?
• Is there more than one door? 
• Is there a window I can use as an emergency exit?

Then, choose a safe place to meet up with your family members after you exit the home. Sometimes when children become afraid, they hide. Letting them help to choose a safe meeting place outside can help get kids safely out of the home when their instincts might be telling them to hide. 

Great places to meet include the mailbox, a tree that’s a safe distance from the house, or even a neighbor’s home.  Either way, choose a spot and stick to it, because changing safety meeting spots can be confusing for kids. 

Another way to teach your kids not to hide during a fire is with a mantra. Giving kids a mantra to repeat can help them to stay safe and feel more confident. Try: “Don’t hide. Go outside.” 

Open the Windows

Teaching your kids how to unlock and open the windows in your home is another valuable fire safety skill. Plus, it’s a great way to make sure your windows aren’t stuck or painted shut. If your kids can do these tasks on their own, it will be a lot easier for them to exit your home safely if there’s a fire. 

Get Low

If both exits are blocked by fire, children should learn to get as low to the ground as possible. Smoke rises so getting as low to the ground as possible will help prevent smoke inhalation and may protect them from the heat of the fire too. 

Check for Heat

Teach your children to check for heat behind closed doors by touching the door with the backside of their hands. Checking for heat with hands before opening a door in a burning home can help protect your children from being burned. Kids should use the backside of their hands to check for heat.

You’ll also need to teach your kids to use their hands and not their eyes to check for heat. One fun way to practice this skill with your early learners is by having them crawl to the exit with their eyes closed.

You can make it into a game during fire safety practice by blindfolding your children and helping them to find their way out of the building. In the classroom, you can set up an obstacle course for children to navigate with verbal cues. Be sure to provide a treat or reward at the end for a job well done.

Practice Using Escape Ladders

Escape ladders can be used to help children safely escape from second story rooms. If escape ladders are a part of your fire safety plan, you’ll want to practice using them with young children in advance. Practice exiting the room via escape ladder will help ensure your kids aren’t afraid to climb down during a fire. 

Stop, Drop, and Roll

One of the most important fire safety skills you can teach young children is how to “stop, drop, and roll.” This catchy phrase helps children remember what to do if their clothing catches on fire.

In an instance like that, knowing what to do and doing it quickly can prevent a very serious injury or even death. Here are the steps to “stop, drop, and roll”:

• Stop running, walking, whatever you may be doing.
• Drop everything and get on the ground.
• Roll roll back and forth with your entire body until the fire is completely out.

Out Means Stay Out

There are too many tragic stories about people who safely exited a burning building and then returned. As you teach your children about fire safety, be sure they understand that getting out of the building means staying out.

Kids should not go back into the burning building for any reason. If a family member or pet are trapped in the home, kids can ask a firefighter immediately for help. 

Looking for some fun ways to help your preschool and kindergarten kids master these fire safety tips and overcome any fear of fire they may have? Keep reading to discover printable fire safety games for kids as well as songs and book suggestions to help teach fire safety skills.

Fire Safety Songs and Books for Preschool and Kindergarten

I love incorporating songs into my preschool and kindergarten lessons. Music is a fantastic way to create connections in the brain and help kids commit important facts to memory along the way. These catchy fire safety songs will help keep your kids safe in the event of a fire at your home or in your classroom: 

• Stop, Drop, and Roll by Victor Johnson
• Fire Safety Rap from Harry Kindergarten Music
• Fire Safety Song from Do2Learn Singers
• Get Outside and Stay Outside from NFPA Kids
• Firefighter by Storybots

Reading aloud to kids is one of the very best ways to teach important lessons. Your kids will remember these preschool fire safety books when it counts:

• Stop, Drop, and Roll by Marjery Cuyler 
• Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper
• Dial 911! by Charles Ghigna
• Curious George and the Firefighters by H.A. Rey
• Here Come the Helpers by Leslie Kimmelman

Fire Safety Printables for Preschool and Kindergarten

Hands-on practice is the best way to help your children prepare and learn what to do if there is a fire. Fire drills and practice using equipment like safely ladders is an important part of helping your kids stay safe during a fire. Read alouds and songs can help kids remember to “stop, drop, and roll” or call 911 during a fire. 

In addition to practice, books, and songs, you can use these printable fire safety pages to help reinforce fire safety lessons with your preschool and kindergarten learners. Here are a few fire safety printables available at The Primary Parade:

• Community Helpers Preschool Theme (with Firefighters)
• Preschool Community Helpers Lesson Plan (with Firefighters)
• Community Helper craft bundle (with Firefighters)

These printable lesson plan packages include fun hands-on activities to help your preschool learners become familiar with firefighters and what they do. It’s a great way to teach shy or anxious children that they can trust firefighters in the event of a fire. Some of the activities in these plans include: 

• Spray the Flames Activity
• Knock out the Flames Activity
• Firefighter Handprint Craft

More Fire Safety Activities for Preschoolers

If you’re looking for some great fire safety activities for preschoolers, you’ve came to the right place. These fire themed activities are perfect to toss in your preschool or kindergarten centers this Fall as you’re teaching all about fire safety tips. Here are my favorite and free fire safety activities for preschoolers:

Fire Shapes

Teach shapes in a hands on way with these fun fire themed printables. Color in the correct shape you pick on the worksheet or match the fire extinguisher to the camp fire in a fun memory game.

Fire Truck Craft

This fire truck craft is such an easy one to recreate. All you need is paint, marbles, and a box.

First, stick a print out of a fire engine in a box. Then, squirt a few drops of paint onto the picture and toss in a marble. Let your kids move the box in all directions and watch as the marble moves through the paint and makes a unique fire truck craft for preschoolers.

Fire Safety Sensory Bin

I love using sensory bins in my preschool classroom because it touches on all kinds of skills for kids. This one is no exception.

To play, place the free fire safety printable cards in a sensory bin (or hang them around the room). Have your students search for them and identify the number of sprays coming out of each hose. Then, color in the correct number on the fire safety worksheet.

Learning About Firefighters

Another really important part of teaching young children about fire safety, is teaching them to identify the helpers. Fred Rogers famously said “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” You can teach your kids to look for the helpers (ie. firefighters) when there is a fire too.

Firefighters can feel scary to young children, especially when they are wearing all the safety equipment needed to enter a burning building. Schedule a field trip to a local fire station so your kids can get to know the firefighters in your community or show them pictures of firefighters wearing their gear so they’ll be able to “look for the helpers.”

Reading books aloud and teaching your children about the jobs firefighters do is another way to help them get to know firefighters and learn some fire safety tips too.

Fire Safety Practice for Kids

Be sure to practice your fire safety skills and review your fire safety plan with your kids monthly. Regular repetition will help ensure your kids remember what to do in the event of a fire. The experts recommend you practice your fire escape plan at least twice a year both at home and in the classroom. The more frequently you practice, the more prepared your children will be during a fire.

I hope these fire safety tips and activity suggestions have helped you think of some lesson plans and activity ideas to practice fire safety with your children this year. Share your favorite ways to teach kids about fire safety in the comment section. I’m always looking for fresh new activity  ideas and I can’t wait to read yours and try them with my kids too!