Visiting The Fire Station!

Today, the All Superstars Preschool Voluntary Pre-kindergarten (VPK) students have an incredibly special morning ahead of them. After arriving at the preschool and politely eating breakfast, the keen little learners load into field trip vans, buckle their seatbelts and begin chattering with eager anticipation.

The children are visiting their local fire station to meet their firemen and firewomen heroes! All Superstars Preschool ensures that the relationships between the Cape Coral and North Fort Myers-based preschools and their respective municipal organizations are well-fostered and maintained. The preschoolers frequently visit these organizations and the organizations also come and visit the preschoolers in their classrooms.

The children can be heard singing their songs about fire stations and fire trucks as the preschool van pulls into the fire station parking lot. It is at this point where the excitement peaks. The firefighters are fully prepared to greet the children and their impressive fire trucks can be seen glistening in the bright Florida sunlight.

For the first part of the experience, the children listen to Miss Andrea and Miss Christi who share with the young children on what to do in the event of a fire, how to crawl underneath smoke and of course; stop, drop and roll!

After these demonstrations, two students are selected to dress as junior firefighters and have a photo with a real-life firefighter in all their protective gear! Miss Andrea and Miss Christi stress the importance of not being afraid of a fully protected firefighter, that they are your friend and are there to help. To reinforce this point, the students are able to high five, hug and touch the firefighter in all her protective gear.

The next activity for the children is a tour of the station. They are able to see where the firefighters eat, sleep, exercise and relax at the fire station. The children even get to see a firefighter slide down the fire pole!

Now that the children have fully toured the inside of the station, it’s time to get a tour of the fire truck! The children are shown the special tools inside the truck and are able to sit in the driver’s seat and honk the horn!

The firefighters saved the very best for last – it is now time to spray the fire hose! The VPK students form a neat line and patiently wait as, one-by-one, they take turns spraying the fire hose at an imaginary fire. The smiles on their faces as they operate the hose can be seen from miles away!

The fire station visit is one of the students’ favorite field trips and they speak excitedly about it for the weeks to come! As educators, this trip is one of our favorites too as it teaches the children incredibly important safety skills, and in many cases, plants a seed for a future firefighter or two!