Firefighters

A Community Helpers Notebooking Project

By Tara Bertic

As with my other unit studies, I wrote this project for my son Jeremiah who has Autism. To aid in training Jeremiah about social etiquette and cues, I thought it only appropriate to teach him about the people in his community and how they help him. I also want Jeremiah to continue to learn the basics academically. Since he is developmentally delayed, these basics are on a preschool/kindergarten level and include disciplines in fine motor, colors, shapes, & sizes, reading and math readiness, matching and reasoning skills, listening skills, spatial, directional, sensory, and time recognition, and social skills. I included worksheets from each of these areas in this study of firefighters. I designed this project as a unit study, but also as a notebooking assignment. We are using tabs in a 3-ring binder to break out the work related to Jeremiah’s learning of each new community helper we study. At the end of our lessons, Jeremiah will have a complete book of community helpers that aided his learning about himself, others, and the educational goals that were set for him this year. I pray that your little one, whether special needs or not, will enjoy learning with us.

Firefighters

Firefighters help our community by fighting fires and they are ready

to help us day or night . All we have to do is call them ! Here are some ways I can help firefighters:

• If I see something on fire I can tell an adult who will

know whether or not we need to call the fire department

.

• If no one is around to help me, I can call the fire department

if I need them. I just dial 9-1-1, but only if there is really a fire or other emergency.

A Firefighter’s Tools

Circle the things below that a firefighter uses or wears to do his/her job.

Biggest

Underline the biggest pictures in each row.

Firefighter Dot-to-Dot

Connect the dots to make complete this firefighter’s helper and then color your picture.

Optional

Here are some additional firefighter unit ideas/resources for your consideration.

• Visit http://www.coloring.ws/people.htm and print a coloring sheet for firefighters. After your child colors it, hang it on the wall during the week you are completing this unit of community helpers. Afterwards, take it down and make it the cover sheet for this section in their 3-ring binder.

• Field Trip to a local fire station. Check their calendar of events.

Most fire stations have an open house once a year.

• Check your local library for these resources: Fire station [videorecording (DVD)] / Stone House Productions ; producer/director, Roy McDonald ; writer, Kate Youngdahl. Elmo visits the firehouse [videorecording VHS] / Sesame Workshop ; producers, Carol-Lynn Parente, Melissa Dino ; directed by Victor Di Napoli.

• Now is also a good time to teach your child to start memorizing his name, address, and phone number in case of an emergency, as he will be asked these questions if he does need to call 9-1-1.

• Practice the stop, drop, and roll technique with your child. Play

make-believe that a fire has just occurred and their jacket they were wearing has caught on fire. Don’t scare them, but teach them how to stop what they are doing, instantly and calmly drop to the floor, cover their face with their hands, and begin to roll around on the floor. You may even tape a piece of orange or red construction paper cut into the shape of a flame to their back to represent the fire. Then, while they are rolling on the floor, pull the “flame” off to show that they were successful in putting out the fire. You can take pictures of your child doing this activity and then assemble them on a sheet to be included in their notebook if you desire. See the blank notebooking page below.

• Also have your child practice crawling to the nearest exit in case there is too much smoke in the room to walk. You can take pictures of your child doing this activity and then assemble them on a sheet to be included in their notebook if you desire. See the blank notebooking page below.

• Talk about the importance of only calling 9-1-1 in the case of an

emergency. Play “9-1-1 or No 9-1-1”. Cut out the 9-1-1 pictures below and glue them onto index cards. Give them to your child. Ask him to hold up the right card and then begin asking him questions about when he should call 9-1-1. Here are some examples:

a. The house is on fire. b. Mommy looks like she is sleeping and you can’t wake her up. c. The cat ran away. d. You see a stranger trying to break into the neighbor’s house. e. You lost your favorite kickball.

Print the Homeschool Share Pocket from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php Assemble the pocket to store your child’s 9-1-1 game cards in. Write, “9-1-1 or No 9-1-1 Game” on the outside of the pocket. You can put this game in a page protector sleeve to store in your child’s notebook if you desire.

Pictures for “9-1-1 or No 9-1-1” Game

• Discuss with your child how he should get out of the house and where to meet the rest of the family in the case of a home fire. Practice this with fire drills.

My Field Trip

On _________________________, I went to ________________________________

for a field trip. Here are some pictures of my trip.

What I liked best about this field trip was _____________________________________________________________________________________.

Smoke

If there is too much smoke in the room for me to see clearly, I need to get as low to the floor as possible and crawl to the nearest exit.

Crawling

Stopping, Dropping, and Rolling If my clothing ever catches fire, I should not get scared. I need to stop what I am doing, quickly and calmly drop to the floor, cover my face with my hands, and begin to roll around on the floor.

Stop

Drop & Cover Face

Roll