Emergency situations can happen at any time. Earthquakes, Fires or even Tsunamis are a real possibility and as both staff and students at PAP we need to be ready if they do.

Every month we have a drill for different emergency situations and today was our earthquake emergency practice.

Students were busy doing their writing or phonics when we started the drill. We played an alarm without warning them and everyone got under their tables. Teachers simulated shaking and objects falling.

When the shaking stopped students were escorted down the stairs and outside. We did a quick headcount in the lobby of the building. In better weather we would then walk to an emergency evacuation site however because of today’s weather we decided to head back to our classrooms.

In the classroom we discussed different kinds of emergency situations. We also went through our emergency kit and talked about what each item was used for.

The final part of todays drill was really enforcing that the best thing students can do in an emergency situation is listen to their teacher.

We watched a video of some highs hook students from the 2011 Fukushima Tsunami. All the students had listened to their teachers and headed to the top floor of the school. They were all safe and healthy because they listened to the adults around them.

We will continue to do this monthly and prepare ourselves. We sincerely hope that the students will know exactly what they need to do if an emergency does occur but we also hope they will never need to use that information.

Prime Academic Preschool Gotanda

Alex Jack