Safety in the Home Worksheets

Teaching home safety to kids is easy because there are so many free resources, quizzes, games, colouring pages and printable ‘Spot the Dangers’ worksheets available on the internet. We’ve listed a few below to get you started; some focus exclusively on one area of safety in the home (like electricity) while others tackle all of the potential dangers including fire, scalds, burns, medicines, sharp objects, etc. whether in the kitchen, bathroom, garden or garage.

This free Home Safety Game is available to play on-line and it’s a fun and engaging way for children to understand what dangers may exist around the home, how to spot them and how to remedy them. There are three locations to check – bedroom, kitchen and lounge – and kids get to click on the interactive scenes to check for dangers. In the kitchen there is even mention of a family escape plan which is a valuable tool in training and clearly showing children exactly what to do if they need to escape from a fire. In the kitchen there is also mention of a very modern safety problem and that is ‘distractions’; back in the day our relatives did not have the distraction of (sometimes several) screens in the kitchen which are constantly demanding our attention.

One of our favourite sites, Switched On Kids is all about electrical safety. We especially like the ‘socket overload calculator’ where kids (and adults!) can drag common appliances onto a four-gang extension and see whether it gets overloaded and consequently hazardous. All the usual suspects are there – laptop, monitor, games console, phone – but there are plenty of household appliances (iron, hairdryer, dishwasher, etc) which tend to be the ones that draw the most current and therefore quickly overload the socket’s capacity. There are loads of other fun and educational interactive safety resources too including a multiple-choice electrical safety quiz (where you can earn a certificate), a guide to which appliances are energy efficient, and an interactive tour around a house (garden, bathroom, bedroom, living room and kitchen) to find the dangers posed by electricity and how to stay safe.

There’s a neat and comprehensive set of learning resources at the Gas Safe Charity including curriculum linked lesson plans, a Powerpoint presentation for the classroom, safety videos, worksheets and activity sheets, and a certificate for pupils to demonstrate they have learnt about gas safety. There’s also an interactive house to explore where you can ‘turn on the gas’ and then hunt around for dangers; the dangers are not just related to gas safety but other household hazards such as sharp knives and hot water. It all ends with a multiple choice quiz about where gas comes from and how to stay safe … and while they’re aimed at kids these important messages about the invisible killer carbon monoxide, appliance maintenance, etc., are just as valid for grown-ups who tend to become a little complacent due to all the other distractions in their life.

The British Red Cross is the United Kingdom arm of this famous humanitarian network with thousands of staff and volunteers across the globe. Their site promotes personal safety and also the important associated training of first aid. Kids are never too young to get involved with first aid training; in fact we would say that the earlier children get involved the less self-conscious they’ll be in later years if required to help out in an emergency. There are lesson plans and worksheets to help teachers and parents get the home safety and first aid messages across along with a nice collection of videos, interactive ‘spot the hazard’ games, and multiple-choice online quizzes. It’s good to see the promotion not only of ‘staying safe’ but also of first aid so that when things go wrong kids can be prepared to help themselves or others.

First released on YouTube in 2009 this is still a catchy (earworm alert!) and engaging video for young pre-school children. To help warn about burns, scalds and fire you’ll join Home Safety Hound Code Red Rover and his buddy Freddie Flashlight on a room-by room home tour to help them spot hot items and learn when to alert an adult. This instructional video (8 minutes 26 seconds long) with friendly cartoon characters takes kids on house tour and spots hazards such as a hot stove, a hot kettle, and even the steam from hot food in a microwave. You’ll be pleased to know that there’s plenty of opportunities for pre-schoolers to shout and join in! The video is available in Spanish too; learn more at www.homesafetycouncil.org.

From their website: ” Safe Kids Worldwide is a nonprofit organization working to help families and communities keep kids safe from injuries“. Their website at safekids.org is loaded with safety advice for children and adults alike and if you look for the ‘TOOLS’ category at the very bottom of the homepage you’ll find links for resources for parents, safety professionals and educators. We especially like their free printable workbook called ‘Home Safety with Rover’ which provides a collection of activities to help children learn about home safety including join the dots, wordsearches and ‘spot the hazard’. There’s also a grid for kids and parents to work out a fire action plan. Other areas on their website cover burns and scalds, choking, water safety, carbon monoxide, poisons, medicines and much much more.

Located in Milwaukee the Wisconsin Poison Center have created a ‘kids stuff’ section and ‘educators’ section to help get across the dangers that exist at home. For example, under the ‘Educators’ section you’ll find a breakdown of school years (pre-school, Grades k-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12) and each one of those sections is loaded with free printables, worksheets and quizzes to teach children about poison prevention, USA emergency procedures, etc. Under the ‘Kids Stuff’ heading you’ll find free activity sheets that extend beyond poison safety such as ‘preventing choking’, ‘preventing burns’, toy safety and even a bike and helmet crossword. PHONE NUMBERS AND EMERGENCY CONTACTS ARE FOR USA ONLY.