You can see real fire fighters using their check list in the fire fighters film (Part 1. Chapter 2) – Home learning version, or on the People who help us compilation DVD plus. See ‘Fire fighters Siena and Siddant’ using their own check list in Part 2, Chapter 5 of the film.

Ideas for using the ‘Fire engine check list’

Encourage children to think about what they could use to build a fire engine, inside or outside, e.g. chairs, cartons, etc. Photocopy and enlarge the fuel gauge diagram on the clipboard sheet and stick onto a carton, to represent the fire engine’s ‘dashboard’.

Suggest that children transform outdoor wheeled toys into fire engines by cutting out the fuel gauge diagram, sticking it on card, covering it in transparent plastic, and sticking it on the vehicle’s ‘dashboard’ with sticky tape. Aluminium foil pie dish ‘headlamps’ can also be attached with sticky tape. Tie on short lengths of plastic tubing (‘hose pipes’), available from hardware stores, and ‘ladders’, drawn on pieces of rectangular-shaped card.

Explain that when fire fighters check fire engines’ tyres, they are checking to see how much air is in the tyres. Bring in a bicycle and a pump to demonstrate.

Say that when fire fighters check their hose pipes, they are looking for ‘little holes’, through which the water could leak (see also Part1, Chapter 2 of the film, and accompanying booklet).