Fire Prevention Week Goes High Tech!

This is post is sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association and Sparky.org.

 Did you know that next week October 9th – 15th is Fire Prevention Week? If you are a teacher I bet you did because it’s the time of year that we usually talk a little more about what to do in case of emergency. National Fire Protection Association and Sparky.org asked me to help get the word out about their new app, Sparky’s Firehouse. My daughter was home sick today and I decided that this would be a great time to have her test this new app out. Snuggled in her PJs she took her job as an app tester very seriously. 

Here are her thoughts:

” It’s awesome, I love it! I can do it without you helping me.” Sparky has a few other apps and while I think they are fantastic they are harder for younger kids to use independently. This one is great.

I asked her what she learned. ” If the smoke detector goes off, get out and stay out.” Well, that is perfect! I am glad she got that message but I’m not surprised because in all the fun games included in the app this message is interwoven over and over. As any good advertiser knows, you need to say your key message over and over for your audience to hear it and the app developers hit the nail on the head with this.

Here are my thoughts:

I love the skill building games that pose some but not too great a challenge, I love the focus on listening, the sounds game as it helps drive home the importance for listening to smoke detectors, and I appreciate the diversity of children reflected in the app as well. There is enough variety to the games that kids stay long enough that the fire safety message is driven home. Oh, and it’s FREE.

Check out the app here. 

My students are too young to be using technology at school, though many use it at home. For classroom teachers I see this app as a wonderful add on to play on your smart board as you teach the important lessons about getting out, getting to that safe place and staying there until an adult tells you it’s ok to reenter the building. Teachers can use the web version for their smart boards here.

Sparky also has a school house full of great resources, the digital backpack has videos you can use, and there are even a bunch of printable lessons and letters to send home to parents. They make it as easy as possible for teachers to get this message out and help save lives!