Set them off

You should go into your classrooms and push that little button on the smoke detector.  Do it when the children are outside or before or after they are there for the day, but make sure you do it.

Why?  So you know what it sounds like.  So when the smoke detector goes off and you are in the office talking with the program trainer and you hear the beeping, you know why the program trainer is running out of the room to the classroom…

Oh, and you should probably follow right behind her just in case there are children in the classroom who need to be evacuated.

Oh, and if you are in the room when it goes off, don’t stand on a chair waving the smoke away from the detector; rather, take those children out who are in the classroom at that time. 

Yes, we know the realy reason it’s going off is because the smoke from the kitchen stove which had burnt cheese on the bottom of it is setting it off.  However, let the adults who do NOT need to focus on evacuating children first deal with it…like the cook or the program trainer.

It is VERY important that you know what to listen for in case of emergency.  It is as important, or maybe even MORE important, to train the children to leave the building when they hear that sound…NO MATTER WHAT!

They are 2, 3, or 4 years old.  You need to train them to react consistently first; as they get older, then they can learn to evaluate the situation before evacuating.  At this age, they hear the sound, they leave the building.  It’s that simple.