Wow! Very impressive! The Old Schoolhouse’s “WannaBe Series” is a very exciting addition to the e-books already offered by this publisher. “When I grow up, I want to be a Firefighter” gives a history of fire fighting in America, including the bucket brigade and why Dalmatians are the preferred dogs of firefighters.  The language is easy for students to understand without talking down to them. There are many footnotes to further explain difficult or unfamiliar words.

A real-life firefighter explains what his career is like, what happens in the firehouse, and more. He explains the equipment used as well as the ranks of firefighters in the firehouse in a way students can understand.  Readers also get to “meet” a real firedog. Activity sheets help students to apply what is learned, such as using the information to create a bar graph of the salaries for the various ranks. There are also a quiz, writing prompts, science activities, math activities, a vocabulary listing, “fill in the story” to use the vocabulary words, a word search, a crossword puzzle and copywork pages in both print and cursive. For the younger students, there are even a couple of coloring pages. A bonus at the end has sign language finger spelling for some common phrases associated with the job.

I really liked the end-of-unit Bible verse listing, activities and game ideas for pulling all that the student has learned together. An additional resource listing is helpful, along with some websites too.

I am looking forward to seeing what other occupations are included in this series. Even if your child doesn’t want to be a firefighter, I believe this would be a great study for learning about community service workers, like policemen, etc.

For more information, go here.

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