Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 7 › Lesson 7.1
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Making the call
Call 911, answer the questions in order, say your address from memory, and stay on the line.
1Watch
The part they dread
The part they dread
A kid in a hallway, phone in hand, thumb over the nine. Behind him, through a doorway, somebody is on the kitchen floor. The film ends on the thumb.
15 secondsMost kids are more scared of the call than of the thing they are calling about. This lesson is the call.
2The idea
What they ask, in order
The operator asks the same things every time.
1. Where are you? Address, then the nearest cross street. This comes first, because help can start moving before they know why.
2. What has happened?
3. Who is hurt? Are they breathing? Are they awake?
4. Your name and your phone number.
Your address, out loud, from memory. Not my house. A phone can tell them roughly where you are. It is not always right, and it never says which flat. You say it.
3The idea
Stay on
Do not hang up, even when it feels done. They will tell you what to do next: unlock the front door, put the dog in another room, press on the cut, go outside and wave. Put it on speaker so your hands are free.
Nobody has ever been in trouble for calling. Not if it turns out fine. Not if the hurt person says don’t. Not for a smell. If you are wondering whether to call, that is the moment to call. Stay on the line until they tell you to hang up.
4Say it
Your address, first
Say this once, then say it again with your own address in it
“I'm at fourteen Elm Street, near the corner of Park Road.”
If you cannot say your own version without thinking, that is tonight’s homework, and it is the only homework in this badge.
5The idea
Rosa's call
911, what’s your emergency? My grandad’s fallen and he’s not answering me. Fourteen Elm Street, near the corner with Park Road. Is he breathing? Yes, I can see his chest moving. Is the front door unlocked? No. Go and unlock it, then come back. Stay on the phone.
She does. She puts the phone on speaker on the floor beside him. They keep talking until the ambulance crew is in the room. She said the address before they asked. That is the one thing to practise.
6Decide
The operator asks where you are.
Pick one to carry on.
7Try it
The practice call
The practice call
The operator's questions come one at a time, with audio. You say or type your answer to each. The page checks that the address came first and that you did not hang up.
Do it three times. By the third, the address should come out before the question does.
8Find them
Which of these are true?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Say your address and the nearest cross street from memory, out loud, to a parent. Have them check every word. Then say it again faster.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Address out loud, from memory. Stay on. Do what they say. Nobody is in trouble for calling.
Next lesson: Bleeding