Patriot Day: Fireboat by Maira Kalman

Patriot Day, the remembrance day for 9/11, is a tough day that brings up a lot of feelings. Strangely, it's something many of our young students aren't even aware of.

While it's a tough thing to discuss with young students, there is a way to do it that won't scare them. You can teach about the heroes from that day.

Fireboat by Maira Kalman is a beautiful picture book that tells the story of a fireboat called the John J. Harvey. It tells about the attack and focuses on the heroic efforts of the citizens about the Harvey.

Included in this Product:

• A parent letter to send home before teaching this lesson.
• A Google Slides presentation - description below.
• Letter writing pages with a variety of writing lines to help you differentiate.

This Google Slides presentation is 7 slides long. It will help you guide your discussion before, during and after reading Fireboat. It includes vocabulary lessons and images to aide understanding.

Slide Descriptions:

1. Before - Do you know any heroes?
2. Before - What makes these people heroes?
3. Before - What is New York?
4. Before - What were the World Trade Center towers, aka the Twin Towers?
5. Before - What is a fireboat?
6. During - Question stems for asking questions while reading & sentence frames for sharing thinking while reading
7. After - How can we honor our local heroes?