How to Make Teaching Kids First Aid Fun

Most kids think that class and learning is boring. They simply hate doing homework and they dread learning. It is especially difficult for teachers to try to make learning fun when kids have short attention spans. There are certain subjects that you also would assume kids would never find interesting. One of those subjects is first aid. Although emergency situations are exciting, first aid is not the most thrilling thing for a young child. Most kids probably think of first aid training like just about any other type of boring lesson. This is really too bad because they need to pay close attention to first aid lessons. First aid is a critical skill for anyone to learn, including children. We should never assume that there will always be an adult present to help care for a child who has had an emergency. There might be plenty of situations where there is no adult present or when the adult is the one having an emergency. While it is true that you would never wish for such a situation to occur, there is some chance that it might. So how can a teacher make learning about first aid interesting? How can you make it fun?

Make it a fun learning environment when teaching First Aid.

First aid is hardly a funny subject, but this does not mean that you can’t make it exciting or interesting. Children usually have a good sense for a serious situation even if they are silly for most of the time. You don’t want to make the first aid training into a game, but you also don’t want it to be too serious. One way to do so is to get the children involved. Have them compete to bandage or care for one of their friends. Tell the children that their friend has cuts all over their body and that they need to be cared for. This can create avery funny situation where one child is covered in bandages. Have them try to splint an egg without breaking it. Creating games and competitions are a great way to make first aid training fun.

Set up a situation where the children find one of their friends unconscious. Have one child play the unconscious friend. Play through what the children would do if they found their friend just lying there. Have them call 911 on a play phone and check to see if there is a heart rate or breathing. See how quickly they can do all of the necessary tasks and compare them to other groups of children. Make the whole day into a competition with some sort of reward for the child or group of children that do the best.

Another way to make first aid training fun is to have the kids tell stories about scary times when they thought someone needed first aid. This is a good activity because with the children’s new learning they can figure out how best to help the person in their story. You could also present them with hypothetical situations and ask for ideas about how best to help someone in a medical emergency. This allows the kids to be creative and imaginative. You could also make the story fantastic, explaining how a poor dragon has hurt its knee and needs a bandage. These sorts of stories will make first aid learning time fun and exciting. The kids will remember the day when you taught them first aid with fondness, meaning that they will remember what you taught them. Who knows, maybe by making first aid fun you could help to save a life.