CM Club - Fire Drill with 4 under 2's

[looneytune]

I have my procedure and carried it out etc. but as I've had 2 of the mindees since they were 8 wks old and my own ds2 is only 7 months, I've been more picking or or just telling them to follow me. Now they are getting a bit older, I'm thinking about changing this so they actually understand what we're doing (well, that's the idea!). The older kids after school are ok so it's just the way I deal with it when I do it when the older ones are at school. What do you all do? Do you just call out? Do you have a whistle? Any tips would be fab

Many thanks x

I test the smoke alarm & we all walk out holding hands

I take the register & visitors book

I have a grab bag with nappies, wipes, spare mobile & charger, blankets & chocolate buttons

I log each fire drill in a book and evaluate it

I too test the smoke alarm and all the children are taught to sit straight down on the floor. This works well when I've got just my younger ones and when I've got my older ones aswell they are all taught to hold hands with their partner (youngest mindee with oldest mindee etc) and then wait for me to lead them to the door along with my attendance diary and mobile etc. fire drills are then logged and each childs' name recorded.

I test the smoke alarm, so they know what it sounds like. Like hennipenni, I get the older ones to help the younger ones if they're around.

Oooh! Logging the fire drills! That's a good idea for Ofsted (I've just done them once a month and told Ofsted that's what I do, but I'm putting it in my register now).

I've just done my fire policy and in my house we usually take our shoes off or wear slippers so i'm going to keep all the outdoor shoes in a special box with a handle near the front door and it will have umbrellas and a blanket in it.
In case of a fire evacuation we won't wait to put on shoes, just go straight out and then put them on once we get to our assembly point.
If the weather was REALLY bad then we would all shelter in a neighbours house if required.

I have actually taught my older ones (three adged 5 and one is 9) not to wait for me. I have this paranoid thought that a fire could trap me, and they would all be sitting patiently in the house waiting for me to lead them out.

We practice them opening the door and going to our safe place. They understand that this is THE ONLY TIME that they are ever allowed to open the door.

I can then follow with babies, bag, phones, contacts etc.

Dylansaunty, thats a good idea about the older ones not to wait, I have two mindees with special needs and if I taught them to open the door I'd never see them again!

Thanks everyone and sorry I never came back to this. Good point about big kids! x

Watching this with interest....It's v difficult as the younger ones don't really get it at first but I suppose repetition helps.

Dylansaunty, such a good idea for older ones about opening the door.

I also do what KatyMac does and press test botton on the smoke alarm as it'll go off for a real fire. Slightly worries my own DCs might evecuate when DH burns the toast!

I also like the idea of choc bottons and blanket! Do they have choc buttons for fire drill or just a real fire?

I do what Katymac does with the test button otherwise they'll be lost and confused surely with a whistle, they wouldn't know what the fire alarm meant?

Just the real fire I'm afraid - mind you I might introduce it for the drill

I tried the thing where I pressed the button on the smoke alarm to let the kids hear it, but they got really distressed by the noise.

So, I changed it to asking them what to do when the smoke alarm goes off.

One day, my ds who was 2 at the time replied "wave a towel under it"

Wouldn't that mean that if the alarm ever went off they would panic & be hard to control

By setting it off regularly they get used to it & don't get upset so will behave and be sensible

Also good to practise keeping calm and not shouting, running etc?