Friday, Jun. 12, 2009

Belleville preschoolers get hands-on look at fire trucks, excavators and more

Preschool students at the Presbyterian Community Preschool in Belleville had the chance to climb around on some pretty big toys Friday morning.

The 23 children spent the week learning about transportation and the workers who drive the fire trucks, ambulances, school busses, excavators, garbage trucks and refrigerated trucks, said program teacher Nancy Hodges.

On Friday, they got to experience those vehicles first-hand.

"This is the culmination of everything they've learned about this week," Hodges said. "This is the first time we've done something like this and opened it up to the community and we are just so happy with the results."

Alison Hall, 4, of Belleville, sat in an Abbott EMS ambulance with her friend, J.D. Kramer, 4, of Belleville, and, with a huge rubber glove adorning her tiny hand, she concentrated on holding a stethoscope to J.D.'s chest to hear his heartbeat.

Alison said she enjoyed "everything" especially the ride in the mini-excavator volunteered to the event by Padgett Building and Remodeling in Swansea.

J.D. couldn't decide what he liked best: "I don't know. Maybe everything," he played with the rubber glove on his hand and described it as "lumpy" as he pulled on the fingers and waited for Alison to find his heart beat.

Emergency Medical Technicians with Abbott EMS, Christine Walls and Angie Walls, blew up the rubber gloves into balloons for the children and drew funny faces on the comical results.

"We let them turn the siren on and sit on the stretcher if they want," Christine Walls said. "We let them play with the gloves and listen to the stethoscope."

Children lined up behind the ambulance waiting for their chance at the stethoscope and rubber glove balloon.

Belleville's new arson dog, Chewy, gave a demonstration of what a dog of her ilk does.

"I petted the fire dog," Alison said. "I put my hand under his nose and then he licked me."