-The teacher reviews what the students learned about different types of communities such as suburban, rural and urban communities.
-The teacher reviews jobs that the students suggested were in those communities.
-The teacher administers the pre-assessment worksheet. The students are given about ten minutes to complete the assessment. The assessment shouldn’t take more than five minutes but as a modification for following IEPs and lower leveled learned, more time can be given.
-The teacher wears a red fireman jacket and hat. The teacher uses visuals relating to fire fighters such as a toy fire truck and pictures of firemen, boots, clothing, trucks, stations and other equipment. The teacher brings in a Dalmatian stuffed animal that would sit on student’s tables who were following classroom rules.
-The teacher states the objective and that the purpose of this lesson is to teach the students about community helpers in their neighborhood and attributes of that person to be able to create a riddle book to share with the classroom.
-The teacher reads Even Firefighters Hug Their Mom by Christine Kole Maclean as a large group lesson.
-The teacher ask questions during and after the reading to check for understanding.
-The teacher models how to fluently read the book.
-The teacher shows items that relate to a firefighter to give students ideas about what to write about when they pick a community helper such as attire, tools and vehicles.
-The teacher displays two examples for the students to use as a visual to help them better understand what they are going to do in this lesson. One of the riddle books is placed in front of students who needs additional guidance.
-In a large group activity, the teacher creates a graphic organizer on the overhead projector to see what the students already know about firemen. The teacher introduces second grade vocabulary words such as “occupation” and “community helpers”. The teacher includes the students to help complete the graphic organizer. The teacher explains that this graphic organizer is going to be just like the one they will do on a community helper. The graphic organizer is completed. After, the teacher models how a riddle book is created based on her graphic organizer.
-The students then create another graphic organizer in a web. The web is titled “Community Helpers” The students choose different community helpers and orally list one or two things that the community helper does in the community. This graphic organizer helps students get an idea about what to write about.
-The teacher also introduces a community helper’s poster that shows pictures and lists names of different community helpers. This gives students ideas about what community helper to write about.
-The teacher demonstrates a riddle book on firefighters and also displays another example on policemen. Therefore the students cannot choose these community helpers. The students have to pick any other community helper and generate some facts on their own.
-The students are given their version of the graphic organizer to complete independently. When the graphic organizers are completed, the teacher checks the student’s work. Then the students are given a riddle book where they write about their favorite community helper. They have to write about what community helper they chose, and what the community helper does for the community. The students then draw a picture of their community helper. As a modification, the students are told to complete this part of the activity first to help them generate riddles for the front page. The students then wrote their riddles. The students create these riddle books for the class to figure out. The books will be fastened together to create one giant riddle book for the class to view.
-The students read their riddle to the class to have the students guess what community helper each child was. The student who was presenting the riddle discusses which community helper they chose and why. The students discuss what their community helper does with the rest of the class.
- The students take a fieldtrip to the Brighton Fire Department to learn more about what fire fighters do and also to learn more about fire safety.
-The students write a thank you note to the fire department. Each student receives a sheet of paper in the shape of a fire-truck with lines to write on. The students have to write "Thank you! I learned...". The students complete the sentence with a fact they learn about at the fire hall. The teacher creates a cover page and laminate it. The teacher will give the book to the fire department once the book is complete.
The students complete a community helper interview. The students interview a community helper of their choice and ask certain questions to this person. The students are given a week to prepare for the presentation. The students have to arrive dressed up like their community helper and present their interview questions to the class. Also, for extra credit, the students can create their own mascot for their community helper. For example, I had my Dalmatian stuffed animal for a firefighter. The students could bring in a stuffed animal when they present that could be their mascot and they explain why they chose the one they did.
The (overhead) projector is used to display the class graphic organizer describing characteristics of firefighters. Also, if students were unable to find someone to interview, the students could do research on a computer to fill in the answers. If students don't have a computer, the students can use the school computer at the end of the day.