• You may wish to invite a local fire official to your class to speak about fireworks and fire safety. Students can make a chart of the do's and don't's of fire and fireworks safety. At the top of any list, remind students that they should never handle fire or flammable materials - only adults should handle these things. 

Social Studies Connection

• Students can research Independence Days around the world. Using a large calendar, have students mark national Independence Days. Students can research various nations' Independence Day celebrations and write individual or group reports on the festivities and their histories. 

Assessment  

• Using Worksheet 1 and student discussion, assess how well students can relate a text to real-life experiences. Monitor their discussion during the Reflect on Reading Strategies section to determine if students can use prior information to aid decoding and comprehension.
• Note whether students can distinguish between the pronunciations of variant vowel oo
• Review completed Worksheet 2 to determine how well students can identify and capitalize proper nouns. Ensure that students are not capitalizing non-proper nouns.