4th May Firefighters Day

International Firefighters’ Day is observed each year on 4th May. On this date you are invited to remember the past firefighters who have died while serving our community or dedicated their lives to protecting the safety of us all. At the same time, we can show our support and appreciation to the firefighters world wide who continue to protect us so well throughout the year.

Young children are fascinated by fire engines, the noise they make and the fire station they live in. Preschoolers go on excursions to the fire station. Young students sit very attentively when fire fighters visit their school.

Whenever I need a quick lesson where students can innovate on text, learn about verbs and titles I turn to that versatile poem Fire! Fire! Cried Mrs McGuire. It is also a great provocation for any discussion about fire, and firefighters.

Here's the poem in picture book form, but it is in many poetry anthologies too. 

Any library display devoted to firefighters is quickly decimated. Here's some books that are specifically about firefighters:

Newer books that are for slightly older audiences and that treat fire where you may get a different view of firefighting very differently are:

13th May Train Day

Train Day is celebrated on the Saturday closest to the 10th of May. The students I teach, all of whom are under eight would not see or catch a train very often. Where they live is not on a railway line, yet I still have many small boys who are fascinated by trains. I think the fascination probably starts with Thomas the Tank Engine, but it moves on to Benedict Blathwayt's Little Red Train  series and then I find that most of those smitten will borrow any train book. Consequently the library has a good collection. Some of the more borrowed ones are here: