Smoke and Heat

1. What your child learns and why

Your child learns to tell a smoke alarm (notices smoke; on the ceiling, in the hallway and in rooms) from a heat alarm (notices fast warming; in the kitchen, where steam would make a smoke alarm sound for nothing). Then they draw the route from the bedroom to the front door and find a second route. The aim is confidence and order: your child is the group leader. The lesson deliberately shows no fire or smoke.

2. Three questions for dinner

• “Which alarms do we have at home, and where are they?”
• “If the hallway is blocked, where is the second route?”
• “Where is our meeting point outside?”

3. 15 minutes together, no screen — the map adventure

1. Draw your home and the two ways out in two colours.
2. Choose a meeting point outside (a tree, a lamp post).
3. Your child is the leader: walk the route together, slowly, and at the meeting point your child counts everyone.

4. What success looks like

• Your child says where the smoke alarm and the heat alarm go, and why.
• They show two ways out and the meeting point and say the rule “I get out · I stay out · an adult calls 112”.

5. Common difficulties

• Asks “what if there's a fire?” → “That's what plans are for. The adults take care of it, and we know the way.” Don't tell stories of real events.
• Wants to run → “The leader walks calmly so that everyone can follow.”

Say: “You are the leader — you lead us calmly.” No experiments with fire or candles, and no scary stories.

6. Safety

An adult presses the “test” button of an alarm — the UK Home Office advises at least once a month. The same source warns that some children are not woken by smoke alarms: agree who wakes the children. Keep exits clear and keys where everyone can find them. The emergency number in the EU is 112 — free, for emergencies only.

7. Where to go next

Next lesson: DB-PZ-05 “Key, Code, Card”. Previous: DB-PZ-03 “The Camera's Eye”.

You don't need to know the answer. Say: “Let's find out together.”