The Emergency Services Come to Call at Children 1st @ Toton

At Toton the children have been finding out about the work of the emergency services.

In health care week Miss Kate came to teach us some first aid skills. This included the number to call in an emergency, the recovery position and how to use bandages. Using the bandages  was the children’s favourite first aid activity, especially bandaging up Miss Kate!

In the curiosity cube the children found a stethoscope which they used to listen to heart beats.  A home corner was set up as a doctor’s surgery where they put into practise their bandaging skills and knowledge of medical equipment. In art children enjoyed syringe painting and also trying to draw their skeletons from observing x-rays of different parts of the body. The children also learned about dental hygiene too and the importance of brushing their teeth well. The children practised on a set of teeth using dental floss, tooth paste and a tooth brush.

The children really enjoyed learning about the role of fire fighters and police officers. Two police officers came to nursery, bringing along their police van. The children  were so excited to explore the police van and even had the opportunity to pretend to drive it. The police officers spoke to the children about their role and answered lots of questions. They were thrilled to try on a variety of police hats and helmets. The children loved the police uniform so much that they wanted to make their own police badges using shiny paper and felt pens.

In the curiosity cube the children found something very curious indeed, finger prints! We learnt about our finger prints and why they are important to the police in solving crimes. With the task of finding two fingers prints which matched the ones given, the children inspected the curiosity cube carefully to find the matching prints.

There was also another mystery to solve – who pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall? The children explored a number of clues which were left such as a spotty bow, a chocolate bar wrapper and a strand of brown hair. They worked like detectives, measuring the hand print, looking for matching finger prints, looking at the letter on the bag found at the crime scene and matching foot prints to the shoe. The children were fantastic detectives and solved the mystery. It turned out that Humpty had accidentally been knocked off the wall by Miss Hannah. Once solved, the detectives worked as a team to piece Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Imagine the children’s excitement when a fire engine and a squad of fire fighters arrived at nursery.  The fire fighters discussed fire safety with the children and spoke about what to do if they heard their smoke alarm go off. The smoke alarm was really loud when we pressed it, but we all practised what to do. The children also had the opportunity to try on the fire fighter’s helmet and to explore the fire truck. It was really high up but thankfully the fire fighters were able to give us a helping hand. They showed us all the exciting equipment they use during their rescues. Our favourite part of the visit though was watching the lights and sirens being turned on, we had to stand back and cover our ears as it was so loud.

All in all, a busy and interesting  few weeks at Toton! Many thanks to members of the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service and to officers from the Derbyshire Constabulary for their support with our ‘People Who Help Us’ topic.