FIREBOAT activities, worksheets & lesson plan ideas

This FIREBOAT Activities Packet remembers September 11th through an age-appropriate interactive read aloud. It is hard to find sensitive 9/11 lesson plans for 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade, but this Patriots Day Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet uses Fireboat activities to gently approach the subject through reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.

It's another picture book with September 11th activities appropriate for remembering 9/11 with first grade, second grade or third-grade students.

 Following an interactive read-aloud of the picture book, FIREBOAT by Maira Kalman, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ SUMMARIZE / RETELL

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ IDENTIFYING GENRE

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PLURAL NOUNS

☐ SUFFIXES

☐ MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS

☐ SYNONYMS 

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ TEAMWORK

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Maria Kalman’s book, Fireboat, introduces readers to a little known hero of September 11th. The fireboat, The Harvey, played an important role in fighting fires on that day in 2001. 

Readers will be introduced to The Harvey and how it’s first job was putting out fires in New York City when the piers were busy. Over time, the piers were no longer as busy and fireboats were not needed as often. The boat was going to be sold for scrap, but a group of friends decided to buy it! They thought it would be fun to fix up the boat and drive it for enjoyment. No one thought Harvey would be able to fight fires again. 

 However, on the day when the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, The Harvey was there to help. Originally, they were going to ferry people to safety. But the fire department needed help because the water pipes were broken and buried. Fireboats like The Harvey were needed to get water and fight the fires. The Harvey’s crew fought the fires for several days until everything was under control. The boat even earned an award for their help that day.

Now The Harvey is back to being used for fun, but it will always be remembered for the way it helped on September 11th, 2001.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables