Fire Safety Week Activities for Preschool: Hands-On Ideas Kids Will Remember
Fire Safety Week is one of those themes that preschoolers are already excited about before we even get started. Fire trucks, firefighters, sirens, hoses...you really don’t have to work very hard to get their attention!
But there’s also a lot that I want my kids to actually learn during this week. We talk about what firefighters do, what to do if there’s a fire, why we practice fire drills, how to stay low under smoke, and why we NEVER hide from a firefighter. I want them to know that a firefighter in full gear may look and sound a little scary, but that firefighter is there to help them.
And, because this is Pre-K, we’re definitely not sitting around talking about fire safety all day. We’re moving, singing, painting, squishing, cutting, experimenting, counting, and playing our way through it!
Fire Safety Unit for preschool Fire Safety Unit for preschool Fire Safety Week literacy game for preschool
Start With the Fire Safety Basics
There are a few messages I come back to all week long: get outside and stay outside, stay low when there’s smoke, never hide from a firefighter, and listen to the adults around you during an emergency.
We practice our school fire drill procedures, of course, but I also like to talk about why we do them. A fire drill isn’t just another classroom routine. We practice so that if we ever hear that alarm for real, we already know what to do.
This is also a great time to talk about firefighters as community helpers and look closely at their gear. Helmets, boots, gloves, coats, masks and air tanks all have a purpose. One of the things I really emphasize is that firefighters can look and sound very different once all that equipment is on. We don’t hide from them; we let them know where we are so they can help us. That idea is built into my Fire Safety Unit because I think it’s one of the most important things we can teach during the week.
Bring on the Fire Safety Songs!
I use songs and movement all the time in my classroom, and Fire Safety Week gives us plenty of opportunities for both.
We practice Stop, Drop and Roll with our whole bodies rather than just talking about it. We also sing fire safety songs throughout the week and use movement games like Firefighter Says; basically Simon Says with a fire-safety twist. “Firefighter says crawl low!” “Firefighter says stop, drop and roll!” “Firefighter says spray the hose!”
The sillier and more active we can make the practice, the better. Four- and five-year-olds are much more likely to remember something they’ve actually done than something I’ve told them six times during circle time.
Victor Johnson's Fire Safety songs can be found on Spotify and Apple Music. These are amazing songs to help little ones prepare for fire safety!
Turn Dramatic Play Into a Fire Station
One of my favorite parts of a theme is figuring out how to bring it into centers. For Fire Safety Week, we turn our dramatic play area into a fire station, but I like to let the kids help create some of the environment themselves.
I draw a simple city scene with buildings on a large piece of paper and let them take over from there. They paint the buildings and add plenty of red, orange and yellow FIRE. It becomes a big collaborative art project, but when it’s finished, it isn’t just something we hang on the wall. We use it as part of our fire station dramatic play!
Add firefighter hats, hoses, phones, clipboards or whatever else you already have around the classroom, and they take it from there. Before long, someone is answering an emergency call, someone else is driving the fire truck, and somebody is putting out the giant fire they helped paint earlier.
Use a “Fire Extinguisher” for Pre-Writing Practice
This one is ridiculously simple, but my kids love it.
Spread shaving cream on the table and pretend it’s the foam from a fire extinguisher. Then we use our fingers to practice letters, shapes, names and pre-writing strokes while we “put out the fire.”
They’re getting handwriting and fine-motor practice without it feeling remotely like handwriting practice.
And yes, it gets messy. That’s half the fun!
Cut, Cut, Cut the Fire!
Scissor practice is another easy one to work into the theme.
I put red, orange and yellow streamers or crepe paper into a sensory bin and let the kids cut, cut, cut! There doesn’t have to be an elaborate end product. Sometimes the activity really can just be the skill.
They get tons of scissor practice, and the strips of “fire” make it feel completely different from handing them another cutting worksheet.
This is also easy to differentiate. Some children are working on opening and closing the scissors independently, while others can cut across narrower strips or start working toward more controlled snips.
Squish and Mix Some Fire
This is one of those activities that looks almost too simple to count as a lesson, but there’s actually quite a bit happening.
I print a fire picture, slide it into a zip-top bag and add red and yellow paint. Then the kids squish, push and mush the paint around to cover the fire.
While they’re working, we make predictions. What do you think will happen when the red and yellow start mixing together? Then they get to find out.
It gives us a quick color-mixing investigation and a fine-motor activity at the same time, without paint all over everybody’s hands (usually!).
I’m including this printable fire page in my free Fire Safety Week download so you can try this activity with your own class.
The freebie also includes the Put Out the Fire pre-writing page, which gives children several different lines to practice while staying with the fire-safety theme.
Want to try these Fire Safety Week activities for preschool with your class? Subscribe to the Sunshine State VPK newsletter and I’ll send the free printables straight to your inbox!
Sneak Fire Safety Into Math, Too
Fire Safety Week gives us so many easy ways to bring the theme into skills we’re already working on.
We count fires and “put them out,” match the numbers and ten frames on fire trucks, make firehouse patterns, compare the lengths of fire hoses, and build fire trucks from shapes. I especially like activities that give me room to scaffold without completely changing what everyone is doing. One child may be counting to five while another is working to twenty. One child may visually compare two hoses while another measures them with nonstandard units.
The theme changes, but the learning goals we’ve already been working toward keep moving forward. My Fire Safety Unit includes these math activities along with several levels of practice so I can choose what actually fits the kids in front of me.
Fire Safety Makes Some Pretty Great Science, Too
This may be my favorite part of the week.
Rather than just telling children facts about fire and smoke, we can give them safe ways to investigate some of the science behind them.
We explore warm and cool temperatures, talk about what fire needs to keep burning, and investigate the idea that warm air rises. That leads right into one of the most important fire-safety rules for young children: stay low and go.
If warm air rises, what might happen to smoke from a fire?
We can make a prediction first and then investigate. A simple tissue-paper spiral above a safe warm surface lets children observe warm air rising without bringing actual fire anywhere near the classroom. From there, we can look at a room scene, figure out where the smoke would collect and talk about why staying low matters. The science portion of my unit is built around that predict-observe-discuss approach rather than demonstrations children simply watch.
That connection is important to me, since I don’t just want my kids to memorize “stay low.” If they can begin to understand why we stay low, the rule has a lot more meaning.
Keep Fire Safety Week Hands-On with Fire Safety Week Activities for Preschool!
There are plenty of important things to teach during Fire Safety Week, but preschoolers don’t need a week of lectures about emergencies. They need simple messages, repeated often, paired with experiences they can understand.
We sing it. We act it out. We crawl low. We stop, drop and roll. We investigate. We paint. We cut. We count. We pretend to be firefighters.
And you'll realize that, somewhere in the middle of all that play, they’re learning some pretty important things.
If you’re planning your own Fire Safety Week, I put together my Fire Safety Unit Theme with the math, literacy, science, fine-motor and group activities I use to build out the week. It’s designed so you can pick and choose what works for your class rather than trying to squeeze in every single activity.
And if you just want something easy to add to your plans, grab the free Fire Safety printable below. Use it for our squish-and-mix fire activity, add it to your art center, or use the cutting version for a little extra fine-motor practice.
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