This is a sponsored post written in collaboration with the WeAreTeachers team and the National Fire Protection Association!
As you might know if you’re one of my many teacher or homeschooler readers, October is Fire Prevention Month and Fire Prevention Week is the first week of the month. If you’re getting ready to share fire safety materials with your students, or if you want to make sure your family is safe at home, you’ll want to check out this new, FREE app developed by our friends with the National Fire Protection Association.
It’s called Sparky’s Brain Busters, and my whole family enjoyed it. In fact, my tween downloaded it to his phone. I know!
You play by spinning the wheel and answering questions, which are a mix of general knowledge questions and fire safety topics. There are different levels and there are multi player options, too.
Some of the questions on the level my son picked were pretty hard. The tween collapsed with laughter when I got a question about the French and Indian Wars wrong. At least I know he learned something last year! Henry was puffed up with pride when he bailed me out on the pop culture questions about Nate The Great and Despicable Me. It’s not cheating if you gave birth to the person helping you. #Thatsarule
The spinner gives you categories at random, so you might answer four or five before one pops up about fire safety. I actually think this is great. Let’s be honest: Most kids aren’t going to be super psyched to play a fire safety game. This way they’re getting the information, but it’s mixed in organically, in a format kids are going to want to play over and over again.
If you’re a classroom teacher, this app would be perfect to use during transition periods, for a, “Brain Break,” or any other time you want to have some quick, but educational, activity. I think you’ll want to experiment with the levels first yourself, to figure out what suits your needs best. I would also keep track of the questions that came up about fire safety, so you can follow up with those in more detail.
In addition to the app, the National Fire Prevention Association has many other free resources for teachers and families, including lesson plans and a new video on the Great Chicago Fire with Laura Tarshis, the author of those I Survived Books.
If you have an intermediate age class, this is a great video. Really interesting information on the causes of the fire (Turns out Mrs. O’Leary’s cow probably got a bad rap), plus information on what was learned about fire safety in the aftermath. Look-I just planned a whole Monday morning for you. You’re welcome.
You can find that video on YouTube here.
You can get the app here on iTunes or
You can also see the Sparky app trailer on YouTube.
Teachers-Be sure to check out the SparkySchoolHouse site just for you. And…...lesson plans!
If you end up using these in your classroom, we’d love to hear about it. I know the team at the NFPA would love your feedback, too! They’re dedicated to making safety everyone’s business all year round!
We hope you enjoyed this post written in collaboration with the WeAreTeachers team on behalf of the National Fire Protection Association! As always, the opinions are all my own!
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