Fire prevention books, songs and activities

I'm a little late with this post, Fire Prevention Week was last week, but perhaps you'll bookmark this for next year.  I  was asked to provide a storytime on fire safety for a preschool class of 3-year-olds.  Here's what I went with:

• "The Wheels on the Truck" felt board song - you can find the instructions and words at this link. [http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/Fire-WheelsontheTruckFeltBoard.htm]

These nonfiction titles are suitable for young listeners:

• Firefighters to the Rescue by Alana Olsen

• The Fire Station by Aaron Carr

• A Fire Station Field Trip by Isabel Martin

If you're reading with slightly older kids and want to add a bit of bilingualism, you can't go wrong with:

• Fire! ¡Fuego! Brave Bomberos by Susan Middleton Elya

• "Hot or Not" game - I can't remember where I got this idea, but you can make it whatever you'd like—felt board, magnet board, group activity, etc.  It has the added bonus of having a rhyming name.  I never miss a chance to point out something fun while learning, so we say it all together and note that it rhymes, "Hot or Not."

• "Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Fire Truck" action song - just check online and you'll find a version that suits you. This is a good chance to get those wiggles out.

• And for fiction, I've always been partial to Fireman Small by Wong Herbert Yee.  It has a great repetitive refrain, and my kids always loved it.

Bug Zoo

It's Nonfiction Monday again!  Today's host is Abby the Librarian.  
(I'll be hosting on July 26th )

Baker, Nick. 2010. Bug Zoo: How to capture, keep, and care for creepy crawlies. New York: DK.

Nick Baker, star of the Science Channel's Weird Creatures with Nick Baker, has teamed up with DK to create Bug Zoo, an in-depth guide to observing, and/or capturing and cultivating some of our most common insects - aphids, caterpillars and earwigs, to name a few.

Armed with "Zoo Tools," simple things that a family will likely have on hand, , Baker walks the reader through the process of deciding what to keep (wolf spiders - yes, garden spiders - no, their webs are too big), how to catch it, where to keep it (an earwiggery, a mollusk mansion, a katydid crib), what to feed it, and why it's a cool creature.  Did you know that ladybugs are red to "advertise how poisonous or foul-tasting they are"?  If you pick one up, it may ooze a foul-smelling, yellow liquid on your hand!

Icons help to identify sections in the book.  The "hand" icon is for fun activities - like tagging snails!

To keep track of individuals, mark their shells with a permanent marker or dots of nail polish... Then go out at night with a flashlight and plot their positions on a map of your yard.  How far do they wander?  Do they return home?

In addition to icons, there are numerous sidebars, margin sketches, word bubbles, arrows, and as in most DK books, many excellent photographs.  A table of contents and index make this an easy book to browse. 

Here's a sample page:

Bug Zoo - a fun way to connect with neighborhood nature.  For ages 7 and up.

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