We just got done using the E-book When I Grow Up, I Want To Be. . .A Firefighter from the Wanna Be Series. You can purchase this E-book, for $8.95 as well as others in the series at http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/eschoolmagazine.com/. Other books in the series include those about being a Veterinarian, Chef, Military, Doctor, Police Officer, Missionary, Artist, Pilot, and Farmer.
This book is for ages 4-10, but I myself learned a lot that I didn't know about firefighters. This 82 page E-book is full of knowledge and activities that will keep you learning for days. Use it as a unit study on its own or to reinforce things that you are already learning about.
You will learn about the history of firefighters, here the story of being a firefighter from a real life firefighter, fire dogs, and what types of emergencies firefighter respond to. You will also learn about the pay scale of firefighters, building codes, and how robots help firefighters do their job better and more efficiently.
There are math worksheets, comprehension worksheets, writing prompts, and copy work in both manuscript as well as cursive. You get to build your own robotic arm, read bible verses, coloring pages, and there are even crosswords and word searches included. Also included are physical fitness games based on being a firefighter, making a firetruck out of a shoebox, and even helps for having a firefighter themed party complete with a fire truck cake.
As you can see there is enough to keep you busy for days if you do every single activity in the book. There are also additional resources listed. They have books and websites that can help you gather more information as you teach your kids, use as many or as little as you want.
When I first saw the E-book I though that it was going to be a simple book aimed at younger kids and that it wouldn't have much for my girls who are 7 and 8. Boy was I surprised there was so much in-depth information included.
I was originally planning on using this as a supplement to a unit about people in your neighborhood. I wanted more in-depth information than we have covered in recent years. Well, I certainly got what I asked for, and I didn't have to do any extra work collecting and finding information and activities. I love that everything I needed or could want was already there in one resource. It saved me a tons of time and in the end saving me money as well.
I did not even use all the activities and worksheets included in the E-book. But I feel that I got my moneys worth. I am changing my lesson plans and I am planning on spending more time on different occupations. I can't wait to try some of the other E-books in the series.
I went through and read through the whole E-book when I first got it. This is what I do when I am planning. That way I know what will be covered and I can decide what to use from each resource. I printed out a head of time the worksheets that we were going to use so everything was ready to go. I did not print out the whole E-book as this would have taken a lot of paper and ink. Instead we read from the computer.
I like that the E-book is available to you as soon as you buy it. But I love to have an actual book to hold in my hands. My husband, Erik on the other hand, loves to read off the computer. So you will need to decide what is more important to you, the convenience of having it right away or the luxury of having a book to hold in your hand. You could of course print out the whole book, but I am too cheap to do that.
This is the first real E-book that we have used and I found that it wasn't as big of deal to me. It also made me realize that my girls don't have a lot of experience reading from a computer and it was a bit harder for them to follow along. I think that we will add more E-books into our lesson plans so they can become as fast at reading from the computer as they are from books.
I then went through and read with my girls taking turns reading. This helps my girls practice their reading and listening skills. I then had them fill out the reading comprehension worksheets.
You could either have them fill them out like I did or just talk about it. I try to have a blend of filling out worksheets so they can practice their writing and organizing their thoughts and getting it down on paper as well as practice organizing their thoughts and relaying information orally.
We then talked about the pay scale for firefighters and I had them complete the math worksheets. We did this in addition to Math U See and I had them complete the math worksheets on a day that was a review of a concept from Math U See. I also let them work together on the "firefighter math" as we called it. I have them do Math U See by them selves but if we have extra or fun math worksheets or activities I will usually let them work together on those.
I printed out one manuscript page and one cursive copy work page for each of them. They don't like to practice writing but I feel it is important so we do some. I try not to go overboard and therefore don't give them a lot of pages, especially if they are doing a lot of writing like filling in comprehension worksheets.
We then talked about robotics and firefighters and the science behind it. They also built their own robotic arm following the directions in the book, they had a blast doing that, Science is one of their favorite subjects.
We also did some firefighter arts and crafts which included making the fire truck from a shoe box as well as a diorama of a fire station. They also drew pictures and did a few other crafts that I came up with.
The girls want to have a firefighter party but we are in the process of moving so I'm not sure if we will be able to do this or not.
We did talk about how you need to be physically fit to be a firefighter. We did a few of the physical fitness games, the ones where you didn't need big groups, and if we could we modified the games to work with two kids. Like instead of having teams they worked either together or apart, racing against their own time.
I printed out a few coloring pages and the crosswords and word searches that I kept in the car and on hand for when we were going places or if they were waiting for the other sister to finish work they had something to work on while waiting. I also have a trip to a local fire station scheduled for this week to wrap up our firefighter week.
The girls learned a lot and had a great time doing it.
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