Ways We Connect - Phone

911 - A Powerful Connection

So it is Fire Safety and Prevention week in BC, Canada. My elementary school kids are coming home with safety checklists. I attended a lecture with a Fireman Safety and Education officer about home fire safety. Then the next day we opened up our MGT package for the day on phones which led us into discussion about how to reach out in an emergency. Safety ... seems to be theme lately so I'm going with it. Come take a look at our day!

Stumbling Upon a New Approach to Teaching Numbers

Pictures of the kids working on their phone books and phone crafts.

Assessment: I noticed that the kids were really interested in both creating and using this craft. They meticulously created their phone books and phones. This craft created a whole new interest in numbers for them. The loved matching the numbers in their phone book too the numbers on their pretend cell phones so that they could pretend dialing the numbers. Their are not many numbers that they are recognizing yet leaving us lots of room for continued work.

Reflection: The kids really enjoy learning when it connects to an everyday need or a grown up activity that they enjoy, like using the phone. I'm going to use real items like phones, calculators, adding machines and computer keyboards to help them with their number recognition. Why? it may be as simple as they enjoy pushing buttons. My one year old enjoys pushing buttons... all my kids too. They love using keyboards, pushing start on the bread machine, or coffee maker. I plan on using this love for buttons to my advantage when teaching numbers.

Even One Year Olds Like Pushing Buttons

Shape Mats

Why is shape sorting and colour recognition so important? It is developing logic function in the brain and preparing the kids for math. Shapes also help relate to symbols and characters preparing kids to start recognizing the alphabet. We have now collected 3 different sets of shape manipulative blocks with Mother Goose Time and use them at least once a week. 

Safety and Discussions About 911

911 was one of the numbers in the kids telephone book. Our curriculum didn't go into a teaching on 911 but with the questions that these 4 year olds were firing at me I thought it would be better to have a thorough discussion rather than a vague one that might lead them to dial 911 out of curiosity. The ability to call 911 is powerful information for preschoolers, but if you've seen videos like this one, you will know that they are capable of handling this tool and saving a life.

Watch Little 3 Year Old Savannah's 911 Call 

Things we covered in our discussion:

• If we think something is an emergency we need to tell the adult supervising and not call 911 or EVER use a phone without permission.
• An adult can help us call 911 in an emergency
• Only in a situation where the adult caring for us needs help or we are sure it is an emergency can we dial 911 on our own.
• What happens when we dial 911 and hang up without talking (I got to share my embarrassing story here of an unattended 911 call in my own home years ago where my neighbor who was on duty at the time came rushing over to check on us after 'baby David' dialed 911 while I was in the shower.) 
• What situations need police, fire or ambulance.
• Stay on the phone until the 911 operator says we can hang up.
• What situations are urgent but NOT 911 emergencies like scraped knees, power outages, and encounters with bullies. It is important to go to a caring adult right aways but not a 911 emergency.
• Situations that are 911 emergencies are -  if we see a building on fire, witness a car accident or if our Mom or Dad, babysitter or caregiver needs help but cannot use the phone because they are unconscious and need help.
• 911 operators are friends that are there to help.
• NEVER call 911 on a phone if it is not an emergency.

I realize that this discussion is just one of many that these kids will have about emergencies. They will have discussions with their parents, they will hear about it at preschool and it is part of the health and safety curriculum for Kindergarten so they will learn about it in school next year. 

We used an old phone to practice dialing numbers.

Disclosure: I receive Mother Goose Time Curriculum free of charge for educational purposes in return for posting my honest experiences using the curriculum. Photos of children featured on my blog for review of Mother Goose Time are used with signed consent of the child's parents. I welcome any questions or concerns.