How firefighters impact the community around us

Theme: Community Workers and the Impact They Make
Grade: 3
Title: How firefighters impact the community around us

Summary of the Lesson

• The students will discover duties of a firefighter. They will read articles on information about the fire department, firemen and fire trucks as they developed through history. The class will create a KWL chart to show the information they have learned.

Materials/Resources needed:

• Articles from Winona Historical Society about:
  http://www.winonahistory.org/
• Firefighters
• Fire Department
• Fire Trucks
• Pencils
• 3 different colored markers for each section of the KWL Chart
• Long paper from the roll to make a class KWL Chart
• Each child’s social study notebook to take notes on the articles they read and create the class KWL chart

Goal(s) for today’s lesson:

• The students will learn many of the duties of a firefighter.

Objectives for today’s lesson:

• The students will create a KWL chart as a class.
• The students will research information about the fire department, firefighters, and fire trucks.
• The students will understand the differences over time about the fire department, firefighters, and fire trucks.

Procedures
a. Introductory Experiences:
Questions to ask the children: (5 minutes)

• Have you ever heard a sound of a siren before?
  ~ What do you think when you hear the siren?
  ~ What does that siren mean?

b. Developmental experiences:

• Divide the long paper into three columns. First section write K, second section write W, third section write L
• What does a firefighter do at his job?
  ~ Start answering the What do you know? (first) section of the KWL Chart (5 minutes)
  ~ Have the children say what they want to know about the Winona fire department, firefighters, and fire trucks. (5 minutes)
  ~ Tell the children you want them to explore how a firefighter, fire truck, and the fire department have developed throughout the years and to take notes.
  ~ Give each table some of the articles related to firefighters, fire trucks and fire department
• Make sure each table has articles and pictures
• There are 21 articles and pictures so make sure there are 4-5 at each table.
• Allow the children to share articles with each other through the whole class period having the children work with their table partners. (20 minutes)
  

c. Culminating experiences (closure)

• Bring the group back together
• Have the children raise their hands when sharing if they answered any of their questions from What do you want to learn? (5 minutes)
• Now let the children share what else they learned and information they found interesting. Discuss the differences in the pictures of the fire trucks. (5 minutes)
  

Assessments used during lesson:

• Informal Assessment
  ~ The children will take notes on the information they learn from the newspaper articles and pictures.
  ~ The children will discuss what they have discovered.
  ~ The children will share their information with the class to contribute to the KWL chart.