Making Fire Drills a Little More Predictable
A simple visual routine for Preschool and Pre-K
Fire drills are one of those things we have to practice, but for young children they can be a lot to take in. There's a loud bell, everyone suddenly stops what they're doing, the class lines up, and then we're heading out of the building.
We can't make the alarm quiet, but we can make what happens next familiar.
That's really the idea behind our Fire Drill Visual Directions. Before we ever need them during a drill, we can introduce the routine when the classroom is calm and children have time to look at the pictures, talk about what will happen, and practice the steps.
Five Things to Remember
We kept the routine intentionally simple:
1. We hear the bell.
2. We stop what we are doing.
3. We line up.
4. We walk out of the building.
5. We use quiet voices.
That's it.
For young children, there's plenty happening during a fire drill without adding a long list of verbal directions. The pictures on the poster, slide show, and Visual Directions give us something concrete to point to while we're teaching the routine and something familiar for children to recognize when it's time to practice.
Our reminder throughout is just as simple:
Calm bodies. Safe choices.
Practice It Before You Need It
We wouldn't wait for an actual fire drill to introduce the routine.
Instead, show the pictures and the slide show ahead of time. Talk through each step. Let the children practice stopping what they're doing, lining up, walking toward the exit, and using quiet voices.
You can even rehearse it without the alarm at first. The goal isn't to make the drill feel scary or overly serious. It's to make the sequence familiar enough that when the alarm does sound, children have already practiced what comes next.
The Visual Direction cards should be stacked and bound at the top or attached with a ring, so the same visual cues you've used for teaching can travel with you during practice. They’re a great way to remind students of expectations without needing your voice.
Use It the Way That Works for Your Classroom
We made several versions because classrooms aren't all set up the same way.
There's a self-running PowerPoint version you can put on an interactive board and use when you're first teaching the routine.
There's also a printable poster showing all five steps together, plus portable Visual Direction cards that can be printed, laminated, and kept together on a ring.
And if you'd rather have a larger classroom poster, we've included an 18 × 24 PNG for that too. The poster keeps the same five-step sequence children see in the other versions.
A Cheap Poster-Printing Trick
This isn't specific to fire drills, but it's one of our favorite ways to get classroom-size printing without classroom-size printing prices.
We use our local Staples for a lot of oversized classroom materials, from posters like this one to bulletin-board characters that are 48 inches tall.
The trick is to order them through Blueprint printing rather than Poster printing.
For something like the 18 × 24 Fire Drill poster, our local cost is usually under $5. We've had 48-inch classroom characters printed for around $10. The result isn't photo-quality, but for classroom graphics it's good, clean color printer quality, and at that price we don't need to treat the poster like a museum artifact.
Your local pricing may vary, of course, but check Staples, Office Depot, or a local print shop for blueprint/document printing before paying poster prices. Because Staples and Office Depot are national chains you should see that pricing where you are.
Keep It Simple
There's no complicated lesson plan here. Introduce the pictures when everyone is calm, practice the routine occasionally, and keep the visuals somewhere you can reach them.
Then when it's time for a drill, the children aren't being introduced to five new expectations while a fire alarm is ringing. They've seen them before.
Hear the bell. Stop what you’re doing. Line up. Walk out. Quiet voices.
Sometimes familiar is exactly what we need.
The free set includes the PowerPoint teaching version, printable Visual Directions, classroom poster, and an 18 × 24 .png poster file. Because there are multiple file types in this download, they are provided as a .zip file and will extract to a folder named Our Fire Drill Routine.
Rick