May 4th was International Firefighters Day! Over the past month we have noticed that our toddlers had lots of interest in firefighters. They love dressing up as them, and keeping their ears open on the playground for the sound of firetrucks off in the distance. Since the toddlers had lots of interest, we decided to do a few different activities to celebrate International Firefighters Day.
The first activity that we did was a fire themed tuft tray for the toddlers. We put wooden people, trees, and red and orange scarfs in the bin, along with a toy fire truck. The toddlers were able to engage in pretend play using this provocation. They raced the fire truck around the tuft tray and pretended the scarfs were fire that the people needed to be rescued from. A couple of the toddlers even dressed up as firefighters in the dramatic play area before heading over to the tray. When playing, Theodore said that there was a truck on fire and that the firefighter needed to put it out. Milley, who was playing alongside him, said that they needed to make sure they called a firetruck and not an ambulance, since it was a car that was on fire.
The second activity that the toddlers did for Firefighter’s Day was fire themed painting. Each child was given a piece of paper with a fire outline on it. When the toddlers were asked what it was, they were quick to identify it as fire. For paint, the toddlers were provided orange paint mixed with sparkles and glue to give it a more fire like appearance. The toddlers loved talking about all things fire while painting their own little flames, and experiencing the sensory texture of the paint.
The third activity that we did is make our own fire truck out of a cardboard box. The first step in making our fire truck was putting on the wheels. Using a black marker, four wheels were drawn on by an educator with directions from the toddlers. Once the wheels were on, it was time to paint. Each child was given a paintbrush and red paint, and then they got to work. With the toddlers all working together they had the whole truck painted in no time. Some of the toddlers painted in circles like Nora, while others like Abilene went for full coverage painting. The next day when the paint had dried on the truck, the toddlers went back to add their finishing touches to it by adding artwork to it with markers.
International Fire Fighters Day was a great was to build on the interest of the toddlers and expand their learning with new activities. Even though the day is now over, I’m sure we will continue doing Firefighter activities far into the future.
