Safety Town

I must tell you about an exciting field trip we went on this week. A nearby city has built a huge complex called Safety Town. In the main building are classrooms, a fire engine & wall of fire tools, etc. (and of course a gift shop where we dropped $20 for Safety Town t-shirts). Outside is a complete, miniature town designed to teach the kids about safety issues.

From their website:

"The complex consists of an 8,000 square foot Educational Facility alongside a miniature outdoor town which has 24 buildings, created on a 5/8th scale, that represents area businesses and homebuilders. Intermingled with the buildings are paved and marked streets, complete with working traffic signals, a railroad crossing and a toll booth."

Each year, the public school kids (and other school groups for miles around) visit safety town, and learn about different things. We went to the third grade class about Bicycle Safety. After class, the kids got to ride bikes (provided) through safety town! It was really a lot of fun. Other classes offered at Safety Town include 9-1-1 and Emergency Safety (Kindergarten), Motor Vehicle, School Bus and Pedestrian Safety (this is the first grade class, and they get to ride Jeeps around Safety Town), Fire Safety (second grade - the kids are in a "house" that starts smoking and they go through various situations to learn what to do in case of fire) & Burn Prevention, Severe Weather and Disaster Preparedness (fourth grade) and Internet Safety and Personal Information Awareness (fifth grade). This place, apparently the first one like it in the US, is so cool!

Regrettably, I forgot to bring my camera. These pictures are from the Safety Town website later. But you get the picture. :)