Littles Learning Link Up: October 18, 2016 - Fireman Hand Print Craft (and Firefighter Says Printable Game)

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

Last week we finally started our new curriculum, Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) from My Father's World. I will be sharing more about our first two weeks, which are the introductory weeks as a Week in Review post at the end of the week (or as next week's Littles Learning Link Up).

Today I would like to share a simple hand print craft that I found on the internet and used with the preschool class at co-op last week. We were still focusing on Fire Prevention Week, and when I found this craft, I figured it would work quite nicely. I did discover that the original idea came from KidsSoup, and the owner of the blog I found it on had discovered it on another blog.

Fireman Hand Print Craft

(This craft was made by my helper and daughter, Amelia, as an example for the preschool class.)

You will need red paint (I use the liquid acrylic paint in the bottles), paint brush, glue sticks, construction paper for the heads (skin tones: I used pink, white, and brown) and hats (red), markers (black, red, and blue). The original craft used blue glitter for the water, but I wasn't going there with the preschool class.

First I painted the child's hand red and we made the hand print in the middle of the paper. We needed room on the top for the heads and hats, and we need room on the bottom for the poem

When the hand prints dried, the children glued the circles on for heads and then glued on the hats.

I used the poem that I found on Tippytoe Crafts, the blog that was linked to in the first blog I found the craft on (Aunt Tami's House). I am not sure if this is the same poem that was used in the KidsSoup craft she found, or another poem she found. I copied it and printed it out, then I cut it out for the children to glue to the bottom of their paper. 

Here is the poem:

Five little firefighters sleeping in a row.
Ring goes the bell, down the pole they go.
They jump on the engine and put out the fire.
Now they're back home, but they sure are tired.

The children then drew on faces with the black marker, arms with the red marker, a hose with the black marker again, and water spraying out of the hose with the blue marker.

My children and I played a game called "Fireman Says" last week, though I didn't play it at co-op.

This is a FREE printable that was send to me from ConsumerSafety.org.

I am sorry I didn't get a chance to share this last week, during Fire Prevention Week, but my understanding is that the entire month of October is Fire Safety Month, so I thought I would share this fun game today, as it goes well with the Fireman Hand Print Craft.

This is a fun way to teach children what to do during a fire. It is patterned after the game "Simon Says."

First the children and I went over the correct responses to what Firefighter says, either an action or something they need to say. Then we took some time to play the game. We changed "Fire alarm is ringing!" to "Smoke detector is going off!" seeing as we homeschool and don't have a fire alarm, but we do have smoke detectors. We talked about possible exits from our home, upstairs and downstairs. We also used this as an opportunity to discuss with the children where they should go once they get outside during a fire. 

You can get your own PDF copy of "Firefighter Says," along with other ways to practice Fire Safety, and prevent fires in homes, over at ConsumerSafety.org.

Let's take a look at that review schedule:

I did want to quickly remind you what reviews are coming up here on Tots and Me...Growing Up Together. I posted the review for Heirloom Audio Production's newest release, The Cat of Bubastes the last week of September. A couple of weeks ago, I shared my reviews of several of Carole P. Roman's If you Were Me and Lived in. . . books and Everyday Education's Working It Out: Growing Spiritually With the Poetry of George Herbert. The reviews for Middlebury Interactive Languages and CrossTimber will be going live next week. And then in November, my last reviews of this Crew year will be going live. I will be sharing about Homeschool Legacy's Once-a-Week Unit Study; Christmas Comes to America and The Critical Thinking Co.'s Language Smarts Level E.

A few somethings I would like to share with you:

Some fun fall round ups:

First, there was the Apple Fun Round Up.

And then there is the Pumpkin Fun Round Up.

And finally, the Fall Leaves All Around Round Up.

And my Focusing on Fire Safety Round Up

And finally, don't miss last month's Guest Post: Teaching U.S. Geography Through Picture Books.

I am still lining up guest posts. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 17 wonderful posts linked up! 

I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts

Please don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's Randomly Selected Post is:

Katelyn from What's Up Fagans shared How to Get Even Stubborn Children to Smile Authentically For Pictures.

Now For This Week's Top Clicked-On Posts:

Ayelet from Strength in Words shared Podcast Episode 32: Parenting Advice That Unifies & Empowers.

Amanda from Sicily's Hear & Home shared The Toddler Experience Curriculum.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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An InLinkz Link-up