fire truck Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Fire Truck Games and Activities for Kids

February 4, 2016 By Deirdre

We have played and created fire truck games and activities for a long time at my house. I think it all started when we went to a story time at the library that had a fire safety theme. A fire truck was invited to come to the library and JDaniel loved climbing all over it. Since that library visit, we have checked out and explored books about fire trucks a lot. We have created crafts with fire trucks. We have played fire truck games using homemade math worksheets and one the floor.

Let me share with your come of our favorite fire truck games and activities! These are just some of what we have done. Please take a moment to search through the blog to find several more fire truck games, a snack, and a few more crafts.

Here my favorite fire truck games and activities:

Fire Truck Crafts

Meeow and the Big Box that the librarian shared so much I later shared it with JDaniel’s preschool class. Since that library visit, we have checked out and explored books about fire trucks a lot.

After reading through a book on painting techniques for kids, we made this fire truck with smeared flames behind it. We made the smears with a simple household item we already had in our kitchen.

Fire Truck Games

JDaniel used to suffer each spring and fall with terrible allergies. We had to spend a lot of time inside. This masking tape ladder is just one of several floor activities we did while avoiding pollen. JDaniel could move up the ladder as he read a sight word or counted on.

JDaniel has such a great time creating a snowstorm in a bag! I made him a fire truck bag with colored tissue in a zipper bag. The harder he blew in the bag the more the tissue flew. This fire truck game was great ways to work on breathing control.

While we were exploring the number one to twenty, I made this fire truck game for JDaniel. He loves rolling dice. I selected dice that had dots on them. He could count the dots and then cover the number with a button.

This is one of our newest fire truck games. It wasn’t created for JDaniel. The fire truck counting game is an activity I made for Pre-K Pages community helper series.

About the same time I made the fire truck game for Pre-K Pages I created this counting activity. While it is not a game per se, it came to be used to play math counting games.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are even more fire truck games and activities you can seek out on JDaniel4’s Mom. Here is one more to wet your appetite. I think you will love this place value fire truck game.

Fire House Place Value Chart

January 13, 2016 By Deirdre

Kids love fire trucks! They really like all kinds of community helpers and their vehicles. JDaniel is working on place value at school so, I made a Fire House Place Value Chart for Kids for him to use. I thought you might want to use it with your children too.

JDaniel is working on three digit numbers. I made him a place value chart with three doors. Since many of you have children that are focusing on two digit numbers, I made a second place value chart for you. (If you click on the link for either place value chart, you will get both charts and a set of fire trucks to place numbers on.)

You know how much alike using dice in math activities. This place value chart can be explored with dice. It can also be played with small cards that you have written the numbers 0-9 on. Let me share with you how each game could be played.

Using Dice with the Place Value Chart

You will need to use as many dice at your place value chart has open firehouse doors. What type of die will depend on your children’s comfort level with numbers?

Hint:

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I like to start with dice with dots to start with. Children can count the number of dots to find the number they will need to put in each door. Older children like my son can easily identify numerals or dots. I really like the ten-sided die. They include the numbers 0-9.

Using Numbers on Cards with the Place Value Chart

You can easily make number cards using sections of blank index cards or number flash cards. We made simple number cards on index cards.

The number cards can be stacked in one of the corners of the place value chart. Children can select number cards of the stack. They can then arrange the number cards in any order they like.

Whether you use card or dice, the key to using the place value charts is knowing the number you are building. Children will need to know what place each number is in and how to say the number.

Example: 389 has three hundred, eight tens and nine ones.

Being able to read it as three hundred eighty-one instead of three, eight, nine is important. Building seven to ten numbers would be helpful in helping your kids build an understanding of place value.

Here are some other fire truck or firefighter themed math activities we have enjoyed :

Fire Hose Counting Numbers

Fire Truck Counting Game (This game has free counting truck printable.)

Fire Truck Craft With Flame Painting for Kids

October 7, 2014 By Deirdre

When you see the flames from a fire, you see several colors are smashed and swirled into each other. For this fire truck with flame painting craft, colors are smashed and swirled together too. The colors seem to be billowing and smearing together just as an actual flame would.

How to create the fire truck flame painting:

You start by gathering together the following materials:

Yellow paint
Red paint
Orange paint or an orange bingo marker
Paintbrush
Plastic wrap
White or black paper to paint on
Black, red, white and yellow construction paper for the truck

Painting the flames

Dab or drip paint onto the background construction paper. It is okay to layer the paint drips or puddles. Try to place them all over your paper.

Place a piece of plastic wrap over the paper that is the same size as the paper. Squish and slide the plastic wrap over the paint. You can straighten out the plastic wrap and squish and slide a second or a third time if you like. Kids are going to love the feeling of the plastic wrap sliding over the paint. It is the movement of the plastic wrap over the paper and paint that creates the flames illusion of movement.

Creating a Fire Truck

You could actually be finished with the craft at this point is you like. We decided to create a fire truck out of construction paper to place over a section of the painting to clarify what the themed of the painting was. Just in case people didn’t visualize flames when they looked at the painting.

A basic truck shape was cut of red construction paper. When I say basic truck shape, I mean that it has a cab and a trailer. Our cab has a rounded front section. If your children feel the front section needs to have a square front, that would be great too.

Two circles and triangle were cut out of black paper to make the front window and the tires for the truck. We went with two wheels. I can totally see fire trucks needing to have three or even four tires on one side. We only included one window, but more could be added on if kids want to have more.

A ladder was cut out of yellow construction paper and was placed diagonally on the back of the truck. When we have made other fire truck crafts, the ladder has been glued to the side of the truck. There really isn’t a right or wrong place to put the ladder.

Finally, a bottom trim piece was cut out of white construction paper to add a little bit of flair to the truck.

Then all the pieces were glued together to create a completed fire truck.

Adding the Fire Truck

Children can place the fire truck anywhere on the flame painting they would like to. Our truck ended up near the bottom of the page.

If you decide to try flame painting with your children, please stop back and let me know how to goes. Oh! You can find more fun crafts and activities on my Early Learning Pinterest board.

Fire Truck Activity for Kids

October 6, 2014 By Deirdre

Whether you are celebrating Fire Safety Month in October or putting together a community helper unit for your children this fire truck activity would fun to do. It is super easy to put together and super fun for kids to do.

The goal of the activity is to blow into a straw and get all the flames off the bottom a plastic bag decorated with a fire truck. If you can get the flames above the fire truck, that is even better. It takes a lot of breath control to get the flames ( tiny pieces of colored tissue) to rise off the bottom of the bag before you fill the bag with air.

We had to release the air collected in the bag a few times before my son was able to get almost all of the tissue pieces flying. The great thing about this fire truck activity is that you can repeat it over and over again.

How Did I Put This Fire Truck Activity Together?

Step One: Gather the Materials

Large plastic bag
An average sized straw ( A wide straw will allow tissue to fly into it and into your kids’ mouths. A narrow straw won’t generate enough air to get the tissue paper moving.)
Orange, red, and yellow tissue paper in small pieces
Red and black permanent markers
Fire truck coloring page

Step Two: Decorate the Fire Truck Bag

You will need to search your children’s coloring books or the internet for a coloring page picture of a fire truck. Then you will place the coloring page into the plastic bag. Next, you will use the permanent markers to trace the picture of the fire truck.

If you prefer to draw the truck for this fire truck activity freehand, you can. I am just not that talented when it comes to drawing fire trucks.

Step Three: Assembling the Activity

You will need to place a bunch of the colored tissue pieces in the fire truck bag. Next, you will place the straw in the bag. You will need to seal the top of the bag to the right and left of the straw by pressing down on the seal or zipping it shut.

Getting the Fire Truck Activity Going

Now it is time to start blowing the flames. We tried laying the fire truck bag on the table and blowing. It was much easier to hold the bag at the top or on its sides as air is being blown into it.

After posting this activity, I decided to see what it would look like with the fire truck colored in. I went back colored in the fire truck and retook some of the pictures.

Here is what it looks like colored in:

I even made a new opening picture for the colored in a truck.

Which do you like best?

Before or after doing this fire truck activity, you may want to sit down with your children and read a fire truck related children’s book. Here are a few of our favorite fire truck books.

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Curious George and the Firefighters – Curious George goes on a field trip to a firehouse and ends up helping the firefighters put out a fire.

The Fire Cat– This book is an easy reader. It tells the tale of a cat named Pickles who is adopted by a fire department. Pickles learns during this book to help the firefighters do their jobs.
Meeow and the Big Box>The librarian created an interactive box that illustrated how Meeow created her box step by step. It was such fun.

Do you have favorite fire truck themed children’s book?

Fire Truck Craft

October 6, 2013 By Deirdre

One of the fun things I have been doing to help JDaniel’s class this year has been to help with the SEEDS program. It is right up my alley. The program is like Read.Explore.Learn. and you know how much I love to explore books.

I decided to share a fire truck theme book with them called Meeow and the Big Box is about a kitten who uses a big box to create a fire truck for pretend play. We first heard this book shared at a library storytime focused on fire safety. The librarian created a visual using a box that walked us through each of Meeow’s steps. The children just loved this book.

Creating the Fire Truck Craft

I only get about half an hour to read the book and do the craft. To save time I try to have everything cut out and ready to glue down. I even do a trial run on my own or with JDaniel to time it. He loves getting to be a guinea pig for his class.

Here is how the trial for this craft turned out:

First, we put the body of the fire truck on black paper. Then JDaniel added the windows and white bumper area. I think I could have cut a long strip for the bumper. It didn’t stick out very far in the front or back of the fire truck. I may need to make these a little longer for the class.

The windows for the fire truck were moved around a lot. JDaniel had ideas about where they needed to go and not go a couple of times. They really could go anywhere on the front of a fire truck and could be turned vertically or horizontally. I think not having a specific place for the windows gives the children can invite to make their trucks unique.

After working on the windows, JDaniel worked on adding the yellow accessories to the truck. The ladder could have gone anywhere on the truck or even on the roof of the truck. Both of the lights could have gone on the top or on the front. The trial run ended up with one of the top and one on the bottom.

The last thing to go on the fire truck craft was the wheels. I am not sure that fire trucks have brown wheels, but black wheels would have blended into the black background so, I went with brown.

I think it will be fun to do this craft with JDaniel’s class. We had fun working on it together. It would also be great to create with your children during National Fire Safety Month in October. They would probably like to read Meeow and the Big Box and make a fire truck too.