Tuesday, February 23, 2010

WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter |Review


The Old Schoolhouse recently sent me WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter  unit to review. I thought this would be perfect for my 10yr. old son.

Cost: $8.95
Format: PDF file
Ages: K-4th - though I think that it would work best for ages 8 on up.

Here is some information about the unit from the site:
  • Discover the history of firefighters and the evolution of firefighting equipment.
     
  • Learn what other emergencies firefighters respond to.
     
  • Explore the ins and outs of a fire truck.
     
  • Pretend you are a building inspector and learn about building codes.
     
  • Meet a real-life fireman and hear him describe his job in his own words.
     
  • Fall in love with Wilshire, the firehouse dog, who teaches children about fire safety.
     
  • Examine the pay scale for firefighters across the country.
     
  • Learn about the relationship between firefighters and robots, and build your own robotic arm!

My 10yr. old son was able to work through this unit independently. I was impressed with the narrative. It was easy to read yet contained factual information in an interesting way. Since my son was doing this independently, I did create notebooking pages so that he could summarize each section in his own words. I was surprised that several times he came to me on his own and started chatting about certain firefighter facts. This is not normal for him. :)



While we did enjoy the main e-book, I found that we didn't use most of the activities. I would have appreciated some notebooking pages in lieu of crossword puzzles. We didn't use the copywork pages because he already has other copywork. Both my son and I were a little confused with the robotics section. While we understand the connection, it seemed like it was a bunny-trail in the middle of the unit (though bunny trails aren't necessarily bad). My son did think the information was cool and wanted to know if a robotics unit was available.

My thoughts: I think this unit would be a good fit for 3rd-5th graders who already have an interest in learning more about firefighting. The narrative portion is well-done and would be a nice side-study in careers. This series does not include a weekly lesson plan, so one would need to be created. While the unit is full of ideas, you would have to pull everything together. You could read most of the unit on the computer, but I've found that we work better with a hard-copy.


If firefighting is not your cup of tea, check out the other e-book units in the WannaBe -When I Grow Up Series:
  • Veterinarian,
  • Chef,
  • Military,
  • Doctor,
  • Police Officer,
  • Missionary,
  • Artist,
  • Pilot, and
  • Farmer

*Tristan, from Our Busy Homeschool left a comment regarding a supplemental booklist that works well with the fire fighter unit. I didn't want it to get overlooked in the comment section.
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This unit was given to me for review purposes. No other compensation was given. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing! I think it is so important to teach little ones about different type of jobs! My son would love this, thanks for sharing!

February 23, 2010 at 6:32 PM  
Blogger Tristan said...

We just finished using this one today with my 8, 5, and 4 year olds (the 2 year old and 1 year old were alng for the ride). We had fun and supplemented with library books and a trip to the fire station. I blogged my resource list here:
http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2010/02/firefighter-unit-study-plans.html
We have also used the one for Police and it was a lot of fun too!

February 23, 2010 at 8:47 PM  
Blogger Mozer said...

Thanks for sharing that list Tristan. I'll be sure to add it up in the post.

February 23, 2010 at 9:34 PM  

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