Smoke Jumper's Diary
Activity: Students will research smoke jumpers and work together on an imaginative creative writing piece that demonstrates their newfound knowledge.
Background:
One particular kind of wildfire fighter is the smoke jumper. There are about 400 smoke jumpers in the U.S., including 15 women. Smoke jumpers parachute into a wildfire area to fight the fire from the ground.
- Have your students visit the Discovery Channel's Smoke Jumper Web site listed below.
- Click on "Smoke Jumper Stories" and listen to the audio interviews with smoke jumpers Andy Hayes, Margarita Phillips, and Josh Cantrell.
- When your class listens to the smoke jumper interviews, ask students to record as many facts as possible on a 5" x 7" index card.
- Encourage students to find more information about smoke jumpers in the library and on the Web.
- As a class, discuss some of the hazards that smoke jumpers must face, such as smoke inhalation, intense heat, and water and food shortages.
- Ask students to use their research about specific fires and about smoke jumpers to write "A Day in the Life of a Smoke Jumper." Remind students to use vivid description words they studied in the newspaper-article assignment.
- Different students may want to write about different parts of the smoke jumper experience, for instance: the training program, making a first jump, fighting the fire. Students may want to read their Smoke Jumper's diary aloud, or develop it into a performance for other classes to see.
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Photo: Jeff Mittelman/The Signal/AP/Wide World
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