Past Fires in our Community

Past Fires in our Community

1. A Brief Description:
In this lesson students will look at three different fires that have occurred in Winona, MN. There will be three different stations set up in corners of the room and the class will break up into three groups which will spend time at each station throughout the class period. At each of these stations the students will look at pictures, read the story/article, and then do a small activity.

2. Materials/resources needed:
Three newspaper articles
- “House Destroyed”
- “Family Escapes Fire”
- “Hometown Heroes Save Child”
- Blank White Paper (one per student)
- 12 chairs set up as a hallway (6 on each side)
- Lined paper – one per student
- Crayons
- Pencils
- Example of escape route
- Handouts/directions for each station

3. Goal(s) for today’s lesson:
The students will recognize the importance of fire safety and realize we are able to learn from past fires in order to better our protection and knowledge of fires. The students will also demonstrate their knowledge through maps and pictures of important participation by all family members in an escape route from their home.

4. Objective for today’s lesson:
Given a piece of paper, the students will draw a map of an escape route from their home in the case of a fire.
The students will write a short story of what he or she would do if their house burned to the ground like the Tomashek’s home did.
A mock escape will be practiced through a row of chairs pretending it is a hallway and making sure to crawl on hands and knees to stay away from the smoke.


5. Procedure:
a. Introductory experience
1. ( 2 Min) Clarify to the students that we are going to look at three different fires that have happened in Winona, MN. There will be three stations set up around the room focusing on each of these fires. Tell the students they will be looking at pictures of this fire, reading about it, and then doing an activity with this particular fire.
2. ( 5 Min) Before breaking the class into three groups, the teacher will read the different titles of the articles. Then give a brief description of what the article is about and the activity that will be done at this station.
o “House Destroyed” is an article about a family’s home that was burned to the ground one early morning. In this group the students will write a short story about what he or she would do if their home had burned down like the Tomashek’s home had. What would they do? What would they have lost? Who would they go to for help? How would their family help one another through this hard time?
o “Family Escapes Fire” is an article about another family who lost everything. They woke up to an explosion and had to get out of the house right away. They did not have time to grab any of their belongings. In this group the students will each go through a mock trial of escaping down a hallway of a home that is on fire. The students must crawl on their hands and knees down the row of chairs making sure to keep their heads down close to the ground and feeling with their hands out in front of them to make sure nothing is in the way and to feel how warm the ground is to know where the flames are.
o “Hometown Heroes Save Child” is an article about the fire department saving a 5-year-old boy from his home. He was trapped in the house with flames everywhere and the fire fighters were able to get in the home and rescue him without injury. In this group the students will use a blank piece of paper and crayons to draw a map of their home. On this map will be an outlined escape route from his or her bedroom. Remind the students it is a great idea to come up with more than one route in case one of them is blocked by flames. This map will be taken home to show the family. The family should then come up with a meeting place outside the home to make sure everyone is out of the house and safe. There will be an example of a map at this station.
3. Any questions from the students??
4. (2 Min) Break the class up into three groups, counting off by 1-3 and then grouping the 1s together, 2s together and so forth. The teacher will assign group 1 to the “House Destroyed” group 2 to the “Family Escapes Fire” and group 3 to the “Hometown Heroes Save Child.”

b. developmental experiences:
1. (12 Min) The first rotation of groups. The teacher will walk around and make sure the students are following directions. At the beginning of each switch make sure to start at the group doing the mock escape. Once they are done reading the article the teacher will be the first to demonstrate how to stay low through the hallway feeling around on the ground with your hands to feel for warm spots. (Ask the students what these warm spots may mean. They mean fire is near and if it keeps getting warmer they will need to turn around and find another way out.) Talk with the group that is writing the paper and see what they come up with. Give them ideas to talk about in their short story if they seem stuck. (Who would be affected by losing your house? What would you lose that was in your house? Where would you stay while you found a new home?) Stop by the group that is making a map of an escape route and ask if they have more than one route. Remind them to take this map home and come up with a meeting place outside for the family to go to make sure everyone is safe.
2. ( 24 Min) Follow the process that was used for the first rotation by stopping at each group and asking the above questions. The groups will be at each station for 12 minutes. Once the last station is done, ask the students to return to their desks and leave the materials at the stations.

c. culminating experiences:
1. (4 Min) Once all of the students are back at their desks, ask what was learned from these three stations today. Ask why the students should stay low to the ground when crawling through a hallway. (To avoid the smoke from the top of the hallway.) Lastly, remind the students to take home the map of the fire escape plan and come up with a meeting place outside the home for everyone to meet at.
2. (30 sec) Tell the students we will be looking at two more fires tomorrow that will be set up in stations just like today.


6. Assessment used during lesson:
The students will be drawing maps of fire escape routes, reconstructing building models, and acting out fire safety issues. If participation is minimal throughout the activities, points will be deducted.

Past Fires in our Community Continued

Past Fires in our Community Continued


1. A Brief Description:
Talk about the three fires we looked at yesterday. What were the fires, what happened in each, and what activities did we do for each. The students will then look at two more fires in Winona, the large fire downtown and then the saw mill that set fire. A small activity will be done with these two stations.

2. Resources/materials needed:
- “Winona: A City Rebuild From Its Own Ashes” Article
- Molding Clay
- Pictures of Saw Mill from Winona Historical Society
- Picture of man at Saw Mill
- Lined Paper
- Musical Instruments
o Tambourine
o Bells
o Maracas
o Chime

3. Goal(s) for today’s lesson:
The students will comprehend the issue of learning form the past and relate that to our fire safety; understanding that we have bettered our saw mills from the past to prevent fire.

4. Objective(s) for today’s lesson:
With the molding clay, the students will reconstruct the buildings that were damaged by fire in Winona and talk about how the fire affected this town.
With the pictures of the saw mill and musical instruments provided, the students will create and sing a song explaining ways the workers may have prevented the fire.

5. Procedure:
a. introductory experience:
1. (4 min) Talk about what happened in the three fires we looked at yesterday.
o “House Destroyed” is an article about a family’s home that was burned to the ground one early morning. In this group the students will write a short story about what he or she would do if their home had burned down like the Tomashek’s home had. What would they do? What would they have lost? Who would they go to for help? How would their family help one another through this hard time?
o “Family Escapes Fire” is an article about another family who lost everything. They woke up to an explosion and had to get out of the house right away. They did not have time to grab any of their belongings. In this group the students will each go through a mock trial of escaping down a hallway of a home that is on fire. The students must crawl on their hands and knees down the row of chairs making sure to keep their heads down close to the ground and feeling with their hands out in front of them to make sure nothing is in the way and to feel how warm the ground is to know where the flames are.
o “Hometown Heroes Save Child” is an article about the fire department saving a 5-year-old boy from his home. He was trapped in the house with flames everywhere and the fire fighters were able to get in the home and rescue him without injury. In this group the students will use a blank piece of paper and crayons to draw a map of their home. On this map will be an outlined escape route from his or her bedroom. Remind the students it is a great idea to come up with more than one route in case one of them is blocked by flames. This map will be taken home to show the family. The family should then come up with a meeting place outside the home to make sure everyone is out of the house and safe.

2. (4 min) Tell the students we will be doing the same layout with stations again today and will be looking at two new fires.
o One is “Winona: A City Rebuild from Its Own Ashes.” This is an article about the city of Winona, MN and a huge fire that destroyed most of the buildings downtown. A large part of downtown ended in only ashes. In this group, the students will use the clay to try to rebuild the city of Winona much like the people did in 1862. Show how many buildings the group believes were destroyed and talk about how they believe this fire affected Winona. The students will also have to figure out how many years ago this fire happened. If help is needed, tell them they must subtract the year 1862 from our current year. Allow them to work together to figure out how many years ago that was. (2007 – 1862 = 145 years)
o The other is a fire that happened years ago at a saw mill. Ask the students if they know what a saw mill is. If not, explain that it is an “outside factory” where large bundles of wood are brought in and workers cut the wood and turn it into logs, boards, chips, or even paper. At this station the students will look at pictures of the saw mill and people that worked there. Then read the description of the fire that occurred there. As a group, the students will then make a short song explaining ways the workers may have prevented this fire. BE CREATIVE! Write down song on piece of paper because will be performing at end of class.
3. Any questions from the students???
4. (2 min) Break the class into two groups by splitting them right down the middle isle of the room. Send the left group to the Winona rebuilt station and the right side of the room to the saw mill station.


b. developmental experiences:
1. (14 min) The first rotation. Allow the students to get situated and start reading and looking at the pictures. The teacher will be walking around making sure all students are on task and following directions. Stop by the group looking at the saw mill information and ask why they believe the fire started. Then get them working on ways the workers could have prevented the fire. (Examples: not smoking in mill, not using wooden structures, other lighting rather than lanterns.) Talk with the group that is reconstructing Winona with the clay last. Allow them to build some things on their own and talk with each other about how they feel Winona was affected by this fire. Make sure they figure out how many years ago the fire occurred.
2. (14 min) Get the students attention and tell them it is time to move to the next section. Follow the process for first rotation by stopping at each group and asking the above questions. The groups will be at each station for 14 minutes. Once the last station is done, ask the students to return to their desks and leave all of the materials at the stations.

c. cumulating experiences:
1. (2 min) Once all of the students are back at their desks, ask what was learned from these three stations today. How many years ago did the fire in downtown Winona occur? (2007 – 1862 = 145 years) Ask what was lost in this fire. (Businesses, homes, money, vehicles.)
2. (5 min) The two groups will present their songs to the class. The group that was at the saw mill station first will present their song first. Then the second group. Once both groups have presented, ask for similarities in songs. Did both groups come up with some of the same ideas to prevent the fires? Will these ways to prevent fires still work today?? YES! They will still work today.

6. Assessment used during lesson:
The construction of buildings that were lost in Winona. Make sure all students take part in the building process, points will be deducted for those not taking part. (Write down names of students not participating.)
Creation of the song and the ideas for preventing the fire the students made. These preventions must be relevant and realistic or points will be deducted from the group.