Sara's FIRE Lesson

Here's one of my lessons that went well. (I used this with 6th graders but you could change the words to make it more or less difficult). First I wrote FIRE on the board and asked them to tell me about fire- what is it? etc. Then I told them that in English we have alot of words that start with the word fire.

I gave them each a paper with a 'fireword' on it (I made it seem random but I gave the harder words to the kids who I knew could handle them and easier ones to the kids who struggle a bit.) I then told them to draw a picture of what they THOUGHT the word was. I left one word out to use as an example- this time it was FIRE TRUCK, I said, "I know what a truck is, it is like a car, and I know what FIRE is so maybe a FIRETRUCK is like a car with fire on it that can drive through fire" and I drew a picture of a flaming car.

After they drew their pictures they shared with the class. "This is FIREFLY, I think it is like a fly that looks like fire." They were all very into their pictures and used lots of color- some drew some very funny ones (I gave some hints- I told the boy with FIRE HYDRANT that hydro=water.)

Next I passed out slips of paper with definitions of each word (from a learners dictionary and simplified) and had them go around the room and find a match. Once they had a match they wrote a sentence using the word. Then they shared their sentence and told the class the definition of the word. (they all thought it was hilarious that a firefly really was like a fly that looks like fire!)

I used: firefly, fire truck, firefighter, fire station, fireworks, firewood, fire alarm, fireplace, fire hydrant and fire eater (this one was also a hit)

-Sara Noel