Lockdown drill

We had a “Code Red” practice the other day.  The Prince let me know about it in advance, so I was able to prepare the children.

“Remember when we had a fire drill?”

“Yeah!  That was loud!”

“Was there really a fire in our school?”

“No!”

“Right, we were just practicing in case there ever is a fire in our school.  And you know what?  The whole time I was in school, there was never ever a fire in my school.  So I don’t think it’s going to happen here, either.  Anyway, we are going to have a different kind of drill.  It’s called a lockdown drill.  We’re going to practice what to do if a bad guy ever comes into our school.  We’re going to lock the door, turn off the lights, shut the shades, and be really, really quiet.  We’ll be hiding.  And eating goldfish.”

Every year when we do this I forget how I did it in the past, so as not to scare my class.  This is what I did this year.

“Okay, now let’s be really quiet.”  I whispered.  Miss Slinger passed out the little cups of goldfish — if you want to keep preschoolers quiet, put some food in their mouths!  “If there was a big pink dragon in our school, could it find us?”  The class chorus-whispered “No!”  I said, “Right, because we are hiding.  It couldn’t find us.”

Then the children started raising their hands, to whisper questions like, “What if a giant stag beetle was in our school, could it find us?”  And the response was always, “No, because we are hiding.  It couldn’t find us.”  They also wondered what if a giant caterpillar was in our school, a giant beetle, a giant bunny….

And nobody found us!

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