• Make sure you have a working smoke detector installed and remember to change its batteries every six months
• Keep a small fire extinguisher in your home, preferably in the kitchen
• Go over an escape route with your family. Remember to plan secondary routes and to set a meeting place
• Get a rope ladder and remember to practice with it so you know how to use it
• Keep flashlights throughout your home.

Week in Review
Don’t forget about the great things that we learned this week:

• Acting Out & Retelling Stories
• Poetry & Language
• Cooking to Learn
• How to Be an Advocate for Your Child

In this country, fire kills more people every year than all natural disasters combined. Earthquakes, floods, tornados and hurricanes don’t even come close to matching the destructive power of fire. The real tragedy is that most of these deaths could easily be prevented with a few simple precautions.

For fire safety:

• Smoke Detector & Batteries – remember to change the batteries every six months.
• Fire Extinguisher (B Class Extinguisher, Small) – You can purchase a small fire extinguisher for your home from any hardware store. Electrical fires can occur anywhere in your home, but most fires happen in the kitchen, so it’s good to always have one stored there, too.
• House Escape Plan – plan escape routes should your home catch of fire. You need to remember to plan a secondary escape route in case your primary exit is blocked. Go over the plan with everyone in your family and remember to set a meeting place safely away from your home.
• Rope Ladder – important to have if you need to escape from the second floor. Practice with your escape ladder, but remember that kids should not use without adult supervision.
• Flashlights – get one for every room in your home so you don’t need to go searching for one in the dark.

To avoid scald burns:
Check your water temperature with a regular thermometer or meat thermometer. Your water heater should be set at no higher than 120 degrees. A good way to check the water temperature in your home is to use a meat thermometer. Turn on your hot water and put a simple meat thermometer in the hot water, and observe where the temperature rises to. It shouldn’t go past 120, so set your water heater lower if it exceeds that temperature. You also can purchase an anti-scald device and install it on showers and tubs to ensure the water temperature doesn’t exceed safe standards.

Keep dangerous items out of the reach of children. Kids are curious and like to explore, so keep coffee mugs and frying pan handles out of the way where children can reach and pull on them. Remember to store lighters and matches where children can’t touch them.