Fire Truck Games for Kids

Life-SizeTruck

• Young children will love making their own fire truck as a playhouse. To do this, simply take a large refrigerator box (or another box left over from a large purchase) to an outdoor area and let your kids paint it bright red. Then help them cut a large swinging door from the front of one side, and several windows as well. Make a few holes in the truck to hold the "hoses," and make hoses from long ropes with a knot in one end to keep them securely attached to the truck. Kids can then decorate the rest of the truck as desired, drawing a ladder on the side or adding any words they would like. Kids can then pretend to be firefighters, using the life-size truck as a prop.

Put Out the Chalk Fire

• If you have a garden hose available, you can let children make their own "fires" and put them out. Show them how to draw flames on the pavement using different colors of chalk. Then give them a hose and see how long it takes them to "put out the fire." For extra authenticity, let kids wear their raincoats and rain hats to pretend they&'re real firefighters.

Which Truck Could Help?

• Kids who enjoy learning about fire trucks will be interested in the different types of vehicles available. Take them to a library or bookstore and find a book that describes the various types of fire trucks and similar vehicles, such as pumper trucks, aerial ladder trucks, platform trucks, airport fire trucks, fireboats and firefighting helicopters. Give kids various scenarios, such as "There is a fire on the 114th level of a skyscraper," and ask them which type of firefighting vehicle could best help. Kids will have to infer and think logically to answer correctly.