WACC Seniors Teach Fire Safety To Kindergartners
December 9, 2021 at 3:00 a.m.
WACC Seniors Teach Fire Safety To Kindergartners
By David [email protected]
Senior Luke Anderson taught them about smoke detectors and where they should go in the home, while Joshua Pelfrey taught about 911 and when they should and shouldn’t call the emergency number. Dakota Pass used flash cards to teach the kindergartners about what is and what isn’t appropriate to play with, while Rezner Davis educated the kids on staying low when there’s smoke in the house and going out the exit in an emergency.
Max Kinsey, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory public information officer and WACC fire rescue teacher, said, “We teach a Fire 1 and a Fire 2 class at the high school. This is the Fire 2 class. Part of the Fire 2 class is that they have to do a public education chapter of the class, and so this is kind of like their skills. They come in here and they teach five different stations to kindergartners. They teach them how to be safe in the home.”
Students can take Fire 1 as a junior or senior, while Fire 2 is only offered to seniors because they have to take Fire 1 as a junior first.
Kinsey said the seniors use an already established lesson plan.
“We go over the lesson plan. We have all the props and all the things here. The fire stations are: crawl while under smoke, tools versus toys – what we’re allowed to play with in the home and what we’re not allowed to play with in the home, smoke detectors, escaping the home and having a meeting place outside the home, dialing 911 – when it’s appropriate and when it’s not appropriate, and then the final station is firefighters are our friends,” he said.
The seniors started teaching the lesson plans to kindergarteners Nov. 12 at Harrison Elementary School. They’ve done all the elementary schools in the Warsaw School System, including Claypool and Leesburg, though the Winona Lake Volunteer Fire Department did Jefferson Elementary School. Lincoln on Wednesday was the last school for this particular program.
“They’re very well versed at this point in time,” Kinsey said of the high school students. “This is the first time that we extended it out to the high school students to teach the class. This is the first year for this.”
He said they’ve done the program as a full-time department for four to five years, but this is the first year that high schoolers have taken it on themselves.
To prepare to teach the program to the kindergarteners, senior Rezner Davis said, “For about a solid month, we went over each of the different stations and how we describe things to the kids, and we have to explain it at a kindergarten level. Of course, when we start talking to kids about like the way smoke moves, they’re not really going to be interested, but when we start pulling games out, like the tunnel, they instantly lock onto that and they’re so excited and they just want to do it so badly that you’re like, ‘Oh, give me the answer for this,’ they’re just going to have it as soon as you ask them because they’re just so ready to keep going and it implants in their minds.”
Davis said they move the stations along so fast because they’re kids and they want to keep going and will only have attention for so long.
Kinsey said the kindergartners are broken into groups and they move around from station to station, with each station lasting 6 minutes. “They really do retain all the information” that way, he said, adding that they used to do everything in a big group over 45 minutes, but they found the children didn’t retain any information. He said a group of firefighters took classes to learn how kindergarten kids learned, and then they came up with this program and it works.
“As busy as we are at the fire department, this is just the best way. And these kids are just knocking it out of the park,” Kinsey said.
After teaching two Lincoln classes Wednesday, and before teaching the third and final one, Davis said the kindergartners were having a lot of fun and they were having fun with them.
“And they’re always really sweet and they get rowdy with us sometimes, but it’s always a good time,” Davis said.
He took the Fire 2 class because he wants to be a firefighter himself and partially because he’s going to be joining the military “so I figured it’s always good to have new information in mind.”
The Fire 2 class has five students in it, though one student was out sick Wednesday. Kinsey said when the seniors graduate, five guys and one girl will be able to apply to be a firefighter if they want to because they will be fully certified. He has 12 students in the Fire 1 class.
The Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory has an educational topic or plan for every grade level, from kindergarten to sixth grade. “We also teach preschool and pre-K. We go to the daycares. We have programs for all ages, and then, of course, all the way up into high school we offer the Fire 1 and 2 classes at the high school. This is just specifically the kindergarten program today,” Kinsey said.
Pass took the Fire 2 class because his dad and brother are firefighters at Leesburg and it really interested him.
“So, I got in the class and I got to the point where I was able to join Leesburg fire, and I really enjoyed it, so I continued the class and now I’m on at Warsaw Fire,” he said.
Pelfrey took Fire 2 because he doesn’t want a “normal” desk job where he sits around all day. “I want to provide other people’s safety and not just look after myself,” he said.
He said he felt the same way teaching kindergartners that Kinsey probably felt teaching high schoolers. “They’re fun. Some of them are wild, but most of them understand the concept of it,” he said.
Anderson, who has seven siblings, said firefighting has always been in his family and he’s always wanted to help people.
“So I feel like this is a good way that I can serve my community and help out,” he said. ... “Just talking to kids about fire safety and stuff like that, it helps us when we get to a scene and it helps them to be safe, so I really enjoy doing that.”
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Senior Luke Anderson taught them about smoke detectors and where they should go in the home, while Joshua Pelfrey taught about 911 and when they should and shouldn’t call the emergency number. Dakota Pass used flash cards to teach the kindergartners about what is and what isn’t appropriate to play with, while Rezner Davis educated the kids on staying low when there’s smoke in the house and going out the exit in an emergency.
Max Kinsey, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory public information officer and WACC fire rescue teacher, said, “We teach a Fire 1 and a Fire 2 class at the high school. This is the Fire 2 class. Part of the Fire 2 class is that they have to do a public education chapter of the class, and so this is kind of like their skills. They come in here and they teach five different stations to kindergartners. They teach them how to be safe in the home.”
Students can take Fire 1 as a junior or senior, while Fire 2 is only offered to seniors because they have to take Fire 1 as a junior first.
Kinsey said the seniors use an already established lesson plan.
“We go over the lesson plan. We have all the props and all the things here. The fire stations are: crawl while under smoke, tools versus toys – what we’re allowed to play with in the home and what we’re not allowed to play with in the home, smoke detectors, escaping the home and having a meeting place outside the home, dialing 911 – when it’s appropriate and when it’s not appropriate, and then the final station is firefighters are our friends,” he said.
The seniors started teaching the lesson plans to kindergarteners Nov. 12 at Harrison Elementary School. They’ve done all the elementary schools in the Warsaw School System, including Claypool and Leesburg, though the Winona Lake Volunteer Fire Department did Jefferson Elementary School. Lincoln on Wednesday was the last school for this particular program.
“They’re very well versed at this point in time,” Kinsey said of the high school students. “This is the first time that we extended it out to the high school students to teach the class. This is the first year for this.”
He said they’ve done the program as a full-time department for four to five years, but this is the first year that high schoolers have taken it on themselves.
To prepare to teach the program to the kindergarteners, senior Rezner Davis said, “For about a solid month, we went over each of the different stations and how we describe things to the kids, and we have to explain it at a kindergarten level. Of course, when we start talking to kids about like the way smoke moves, they’re not really going to be interested, but when we start pulling games out, like the tunnel, they instantly lock onto that and they’re so excited and they just want to do it so badly that you’re like, ‘Oh, give me the answer for this,’ they’re just going to have it as soon as you ask them because they’re just so ready to keep going and it implants in their minds.”
Davis said they move the stations along so fast because they’re kids and they want to keep going and will only have attention for so long.
Kinsey said the kindergartners are broken into groups and they move around from station to station, with each station lasting 6 minutes. “They really do retain all the information” that way, he said, adding that they used to do everything in a big group over 45 minutes, but they found the children didn’t retain any information. He said a group of firefighters took classes to learn how kindergarten kids learned, and then they came up with this program and it works.
“As busy as we are at the fire department, this is just the best way. And these kids are just knocking it out of the park,” Kinsey said.
After teaching two Lincoln classes Wednesday, and before teaching the third and final one, Davis said the kindergartners were having a lot of fun and they were having fun with them.
“And they’re always really sweet and they get rowdy with us sometimes, but it’s always a good time,” Davis said.
He took the Fire 2 class because he wants to be a firefighter himself and partially because he’s going to be joining the military “so I figured it’s always good to have new information in mind.”
The Fire 2 class has five students in it, though one student was out sick Wednesday. Kinsey said when the seniors graduate, five guys and one girl will be able to apply to be a firefighter if they want to because they will be fully certified. He has 12 students in the Fire 1 class.
The Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory has an educational topic or plan for every grade level, from kindergarten to sixth grade. “We also teach preschool and pre-K. We go to the daycares. We have programs for all ages, and then, of course, all the way up into high school we offer the Fire 1 and 2 classes at the high school. This is just specifically the kindergarten program today,” Kinsey said.
Pass took the Fire 2 class because his dad and brother are firefighters at Leesburg and it really interested him.
“So, I got in the class and I got to the point where I was able to join Leesburg fire, and I really enjoyed it, so I continued the class and now I’m on at Warsaw Fire,” he said.
Pelfrey took Fire 2 because he doesn’t want a “normal” desk job where he sits around all day. “I want to provide other people’s safety and not just look after myself,” he said.
He said he felt the same way teaching kindergartners that Kinsey probably felt teaching high schoolers. “They’re fun. Some of them are wild, but most of them understand the concept of it,” he said.
Anderson, who has seven siblings, said firefighting has always been in his family and he’s always wanted to help people.
“So I feel like this is a good way that I can serve my community and help out,” he said. ... “Just talking to kids about fire safety and stuff like that, it helps us when we get to a scene and it helps them to be safe, so I really enjoy doing that.”
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