Preschool Activities: Ambulance Fun and Safety Lessons
Bring A Guest to Your Classroom
Sometimes preschool classes have guest speakers, like firemen or paramedics. They bring in their rescue vehicles and give the children a tour. If you’re a teacher, however, don’t expect these guest speakers to provide preschool activities. Ambulance workers explain the equipment, but beyond that, make sure you have plenty of things for your students to do once they finish the demonstration. This article explains several activities a preschool classroom can do on an ambulance to keep with the theme of safety, health, and rescue vehicles.
Rescue Vehicle Around the World
Most teachers are familiar with the game, “Around the World.” Typically a math game, two students stand up together and see who can answer a question quicker than the other. The quickest correct responder wins and moves to the next person, who stands up next to them and competes. The goal is to make it all the way around the class and get back to your seat.
You can play rescue vehicle around the world with preschoolers and printed out pictures of rescue vehicles. Use an ambulance, fire truck, helicopter, tow truck, rescue boat, police car, and police motorcycle. The child to correctly identify the name of the rescue vehicle moves on to the next student. Since ambulances don’t have desks, simply sit on the benches along the walls of the vehicle.
Make a First-Aid Kit
Explain to children that ambulances help the injured and sick quickly get medical attention. Tell them that, if needed, the paramedics provide medical care for someone who is on the way to the hospital.
Then, let the children know that basic first-aid knowledge is important and all families should have a first aid kit. For this activity, have bins or bowls filled with band-aids, bandages, gauze pads, antibiotic ointment, gloves, an instant cold compress, and cloth tape. Give the preschoolers quart sized baggies and let them pack their own first-aid kits. Of course, omit scissors, tweezers, and aspirin from this kit since they can be dangerous for young children.
Safe or Dangerous Game
A typical day usually needs a few quiet preschool activities. Ambulance visits may coincide with some sort of safety awareness week. Print off various pictures of people doing safe things and people doing dangerous things. For example, safe pictures include: wearing a helmet, holding an adult’s hand while crossing the road, and reading books. Dangerous pictures include, touching an electrical outlet, playing with chemicals, or touching a stove. Then, give the children a piece of paper with a line down the middle. Have them cut and paste the safe pictures to one side of the page and the dangerous pictures to the other.
Learning Is Fun
A lot of early educators use daily or weekly themed lesson plans for their preschool activities. Ambulance visits, fire truck visits, and visits from other health care professional guest speakers work well during a health or safety week. These fun activities help your preschool students learn more about safety and rescue,and they are fun and educational.
Image Credit:
Sj-Franks at Morguefile.com
