Montessori Magic Friday: "I'm a Firefighter Getting Dressed" Free Song and Low Budget

These resources are another one of my collections of activities to enhance your children's Music and Arts curriculum with activities that feature dress-ups!

FIREFIGHTERS

You can download these two mp3 songs of mine at my Subscriber's Freebie Page. CLICK HERE.

If you aren't already a subscriber and would like to become one, simply SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of this page and you'll see the sign-up form for subscribing! Once you subscribe, you will immediately receive a welcoming email with the password for my Freebie Collection page.

DOWNLOAD MY "FIREFIGHTER GETTING DRESSED" SONGS

These are recordings of an action song with a familiar melody and my newly added words. The children have lots of fun dramatizing the words of the song about the clothes that a firefighter must put on to get ready for fighting a fire.

To make the fun of my "Firefighter Getting Dressed" song come to life, I have added firefighter costumes, props, and little books to the child's environment!

During the month of October, you can find costumes at many of the second-hand shops in your area. That's where I have found most of the dress-ups for my reality based Montessori style drama play area.

Here are some things I've collected for the Firefighter theme:

Cloth firefighter suits
Light weight firefighter hat
Child size boots
Child size gloves
Small, sturdy flashlight (****SUPERVISE YOUR CHILDREN AT ALL TIMES)
Picture Books
Water play toys such as a spray bottle and a small sized water pump
Make a visit to the Fire Department!
Download my mp3 song and have fun dramatizing the actions in the song
Add a triangle (instrument) for a pretend fire bell!

"PRACTICAL LIFE" BENEFITS OF DRESS-UPS

Not only are these props and costumes fun for the children, they also give the young child lots of practice with self care skills: zipping, velcro, hooking, clasping, putting on gloves & boots and even using hangers and hooks to keep things organized.

CONSTRUCTION ZONE

It's fun to change the "theme" in the drama play area after a few weeks to keep the child/ren engaged.

Here are some things you can use to enhance your construction zone!

Simple cloth safety vest
Yellow hardhat
Cones
Child-Size Tool box
Child-Size Safety goggles
Gloves
Cones
Boots
Flashlight
Construction picture books
Make a visit to observe a construction crew building a new building or repairing a road
Add some funny sounding instruments and make up silly songs about hammers, construction trucks, trains, hardhats, and bridges.

ASTRONAUTS

For some reason, I usually find lots of astronaut costumes at the second-hand stores and they are very sturdy, authentic and lots of fun for children. Once again children can use boots, gloves, and flashlights to go along with costumes for outer space fun.

With Astronaut Drama Play you can add:

Books about Outer Space, the Solar System, and the Moon
Set up a pretend space ship with rows of child size chairs, or large packing boxes
Make the Picture Song Book "Flying Man", sing the song, "Flying Man" and make a Space Helmet stick puppet... all from my Freebie Collection!
CLICK HERE to read my Blog article: "Three of the Best Free Music Resources for Outer Space Fun"
CLICK HERE to see a wonderful post full of free resources from around the web, from Deb Chitwood's Living Montessori Now site: "Free Moon Printables and Montessori-Inspired Moon Activities"
Stay up late and look for constellations in the stars or record the phases of the moon
Take a trip to your local museum's "Planetarium!"

PRINCESSES

Over the decades, I've seen just about every child go through an infatuation with princesses! So I figured I should add some activities that are fun, cheap, and/or free for little ones to play with the idea of "princess."

You can create some princess magic with:

One yard lengths of netting material from the fabric store
Cloth "wings"
Feathery, shimmery "Jumbo Chenille Stems" (twist these into crowns for the head)

Available at Amazon.

Any objects from your own closet or from the second hand store, like sequin vests, long gloves, sparkly shoes...
Show the child/ren how to set the table for a fancy "tea"or "banquet" with a pretty table cloth, some flowers, name cards, flowery tea cups (from the second hand store) and some special little child-made cucumber sandwiches!