How five and six year olds learn safety behaviours
Educationalists have established through research that five and six year olds learn and retain safety messages and safe behaviours if:
- the number of messages and behaviours is kept to as few as possible
- the message is repeated several times and children say it out loud
- when the message or behaviour is introduced, the children have many opportunities to process the knowledge or practise the behaviour
- each time children process the knowledge they involve themselves in the situation and talk, describe, or draw themselves in the situation
- where possible, children actively do something to practise the behaviour
- children have opportunities to discuss their knowledge and practise their skills at regular intervals after they have learnt it
- children relate the learning to themselves and their family and lives.
The Get Firewise for year 1 and 2 programme aims to introduce fire-safety messages and behaviours by:
- making the messages and behaviour relevant to home and school
- scaffolding learning
- encouraging repitition of key messages and behaviours
- having students process the new messages and behaviours by completing a range of learning experiences
- engaging family or whānau in the learning.
Teachers are asked to:
- teach sections that involve learning fire-safe behaviour in sequence and keep using the same key messages
- give students every opportunity to practise the fire safe behaviours and to explain or describe what they are doing
- complete a number of learning experiences related to any new learnt knowledge or behaviour.
