GET READY WITH FREDDIE!

Help Elementary Students and their Families Prepare for Unexpected Emergencies

The Home Safety Council’s Disaster Preparedness page can help you help your community.

Use the popular Get Ready with Freddie! program to help children in your community learn how to work with their families to prepare for unexpected emergencies. Produced by HSC in partnership with the leading education publisher, Weekly Reader, Get Ready with Freddie! has already been distributed to more than 75,000 classrooms nationwide, free of charge.

In late August 2007, HSC distributed the program to every U.S. elementary school with a third or fourth grade classroom, reaching 13 million teachers, students and their families.

Expert Network Members in the Fire Service: HSC has mailed each fire service member of the Expert Network three free copies of Get Ready with Freddie! for use in community outreach.

Expert Network Members representing other disciplines: HSC is offering one free kit per member, while supplies last. Request your copy of Get Ready with Freddie! now.

The program features Freddie Flashlight, the long-time sidekick of the Home Safety Council’s mascot, Rover the Home Safety Hound. Freddie takes center stage in this program, focusing on emergency preparedness. Students will join Freddie to develop a communications plan and assemble “Ready-to-Go” and “Ready-to-Stay” preparedness kits for their homes.

Kids Prepare America Contest

In September, the Home Safety Council is launching the Kids Prepare America Contest and calling on third and fourth grade students across America to take the lead in driving family readiness efforts at home. By showing the Home Safety Council what they have done to help prepare their families and communities, students can become eligible to win a trip to Washington, D.C. next summer. Ten Grand Prize Student Winners from across the country will be selected to visit the nation’s capital with an adult family member, teacher and safety partner from the community to attend an awards dinner on June 5, 2008 in their honor.

Visit www.kidsprepareamerica.org for contest entry forms and rules.

Focus on Family Readiness with Free Downloads

Download these free materials to use in your teaching activities:

• Activity Book
• Disaster Preparedness Safety Guide
• Live/Action Animated Video (English)
• Live/Action Animated Video (Spanish)
• Lesson Plans for Teachers
• Classroom Poster
• What’s Your Family Plan? – Student Worksheet
• Are you Ready? – Student Worksheet
• Letter for Parents and Checklist (English)
• Letter for Parents and Checklist (Spanish)
• Communication Cards
• Local Program Evaluation Form:
  HSC urges educators to download and customize this evaluation form to help you measure your local outreach efforts and success. Remember to fill in your local contact information at the bottom of the form before sending it to teachers/administrators.

These new tools are the latest classroom materials prepared by the Home Safety Council to help teachers educate students on how to prevent serious injuries in and around the home. The materials were developed thanks to the generous support of Lowe’s and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA.

Teachers can also visit www.homesafetycouncil.org/teacher to download free home safety resources for their classrooms.