Friday, April 23, 2010

Cicero Spring Break Safety Classes


AmeriCorps members taught community safety courses to both adults and children during The Town of Cicero’s spring break on April 5-9. Each day from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., I taught kid safety classes such as: Kid Firestopper, First Aid for Little People, Home Alone and Scrubby Bear. The number of students per class averaged about 18. While I taught kid safety classes, Brandon Springer and Jennifer Foster taught Community Disaster Education to the parents. Topics included fire safety, family disaster plans, tornadoes and heat waves.

Classes were taught at the Cicero Community Center in partnership with the Cicero Health Department, the Cicero Youth Commission and the Cicero Fire Department. On April 5th, 7th and 9th the fire department provided a fire engine and firefighters who spoke with the children and showed them the many pieces of equipment that firefighters use. A few firefighters dressed up in their full firefighter suits to explain how it all worked. This also helped kids get over their fear of how firefighters look when they’re in their equipment. Excited from seeing the fire engine, the kids were eager to point out fire hazards on the poster that I showed them. Each student was given an activity book after the presentations.

On April 6th and 8th, students learned about how to be safe when walking home from school. They also learned how to keep their key hidden from strangers, that they shouldn’t talk to strangers, how to be safe when home alone, how to call 911 and how to stay clean and free of germs. Several of the students volunteered to call 911 on a fake cell phone as well as put a key on a string under their shirt to practice keeping it hidden from strangers. They also learned how to wash hands, what germs are, where they are and how to avoid getting sick. Each student was given a teddy bear after the presentations.

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