We had two fire drills (not on purpose) this past week and it made me wonder how other schools practice emergency drills. For fire drills the alarm goes off (duh) and the kids know to drop what they are doing get up from their seats and in an orderly fashion go down the hall, down the stairs, down the ramp and outside. I am always the last person out. The first student (or the first to remember) takes our "crisis bag" with them and holds it until the entire class is outside safe. Once outside I take the bag and hand a sign (laminated paper) to the first person to hold up. Green means everyone is accounted for, Red means someone is missing (they may have been in the library or with a specialist, etc.), and Yellow means we have an extra child with us (like if someone was in the restroom and comes out with us. We have almost 900 students (sounds like a lot??? Naaah, we use to have 1400!!!) at our PreK- 5th grade and our school is two stories.
I got my "crisis bag" from Vistaprint. I was lucky enough to get it for free with the special they had going at the time (3 years ago). My crisis bags contains a whistle, activities for the students (I have a set of Scholastic News magazines, a pack of pencils, and a pack of loose leaf paper), a folder with our class list (attendance roster) and Emergency contact info for all the students, and the three laminated signs (red, green, & yellow). Our school has been open for 9 years and we have never needed to use our crisis bags.... hopefully it will stay that way! :)
How do you guys handle emergency drills in your school?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In fourth grade we study Native Americans from Texas. We were super lucky to have one of our Special Education teachers share her culture with us. She did a great presentation and the kids loved making connections to what they learned to what she shared with us. Here are some pics from Friday's event.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A super sweet gal from Shoplet.com asked me if I would be interested in trying a product and reviewing it... Suprise, I said yes and I am glad I did.
As you see in the picture it's absolutely adorable! My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it! At first I selfishly had it on my desk and kept it for myself to use but then I decided to share. The desktop dispenser now sits in between a couple of student computers. The kids know to get a squirt before using the computers so hopefully no germs are spreading on our keyboards. I am thinking of purchasing a couple of more to use as my bathroom passes that I blogged about sometime this summer, I am sure the kids would love me for it!
Hoppy Weekend my friends!
