ENGLISH
16 My Very First Games
Discovering details with creative play
In creative play, your child discovers the game figures and material, bringing them to life.
Play along! Explore together the images in the fire station and its surroundings. Look at the
hose, the wooden bucket and fire extinguisher and the equipment tiles, showing your child
the identical pictures on the fire station walls. Let your child place the tiles next to the match-
ing pictures on the walls, identifying and naming each item correctly.
Take a good look together at the front and back sides of the semi-circular tiles. What is the
difference? What started the fire?
Now, your child can connect the hose to the hole on the side of the game box and the hole
in Fireman Max, becoming a fire fighter with the hose, bucket or fire extinguisher. It is espe-
cially enjoyable when your child makes the sounds to go along with the role, such as water
rushing from the hose or the hiss of the fire extinguisher. Let your child drive around with
the fire engine, sirens wailing, training his fine motor skills.
Now your child is familiar with the game materials and pictures.
Before playing for the first time, talk with your child about the fire department and their
work. What does your child already know? What does the fire department do? What of all
that is represented in the game? Has your child ever seen a real fire engine? Discuss together
where and in which situation you have already seen firefighters or a fire engine. This playfully
fosters your child’s speech skills and hearing, not to mention her fantasy!
Some children independently develop their own role games and gradually tell their own sto-
ries when playing with the figures. There’s no limit to a child’s fantasy! So, connect the hose
and race off to put out the next fire!
Children who are a bit older and are more familiar with the
game materials can be asked questions about details on the
pictures in and around the fire department. For example:
How many mice can you find? Did you see the sunflower?
What is the fireman doing there? Where is the cat?
Can you find a sleeping fireman? …
Game idea
Fire! Fire!
So far, it has been a quiet day at the fire department in Habatown. Suddenly, the big siren at
the fire station roars to life. There’s a fire in the city! Fire fighters Max and Anton are ready in
a flash, jumping into the bright red fire engine, they race off to fight the fire. With their siren
wailing and equipped with hose, bucket and fire extinguisher, they know just what to do!