Being Prepared at TCS

The Children's School revisits Emergency Preparedness regularly throughout the year, and most recently at the March Teacher's Meeting. But with the recent events in Japan this past weekend, we thought we could remind ourselves what resources are at our disposal to do our own due diligence when it comes to "Being Prepared."

At the beginning of the school year, families receive a pink booklet entitled "The Children's School - Emergency Preparedness and

Safety Handbook." This booklet has several useful articles, checklists, and pointers for preparing your home, and your family for the unexpected.

One of the links here on our blog's front page is taken from that booklet: Your Role in The Children's School Emergency Preparedness Plan. This document contains a table that you can cut out. It is designed to cut in two, so that 2 household members can have easy access to information such as the school address, child's teacher's name and cell, etc. This is the kind of information that can go out of one's head when an emergency arises.

Another great resource is the website from King County on preparedness 3Days3Ways.

In order to truly be prepared, we must update records, update forms, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE our procedures.

With our media filled with images of earthquake and tsunami, we have extended this "practice" to include language. In the older classrooms only (M-F, MWF and Pre-K) there are now books, games and maps available to our children who are curious about some of language they may be hearing or images they may be seeing.

NOT ALL CHILDREN are interested in these resources. They are there for those who need/want to know more. These classroom resources include: "Tsunamis" by Luke Thompson; "Tsunami for Chile, Hawaii and Japan" - a USGS book; the "Ring of Fire" map; the globe; "Earthquakes" by David Newton; a map of Northern Japan from the 3/12/11 NY Times; the "EMERCENCY" take away game; and the TCS-created board game about fire and earthquake drills and emergencies. There is renewed interest and practice for the children at their "communication stations" where they send out emails, and dial "911" reporting emergencies and sending out for help.

We want to remind families that, as with all of our materials in the classrooms, the use of these materials in child-interest driven.