Author and Firefighters Visit Edgewood Elementary

On October 16th author and Vermont native Natalie Kinsey-Warnock visited Edgewood's fourth and fifth graders. She encouraged the children to keep journals, talk to older relatives and seek out journals kept by their ancestors. According to the author, journals and interviews with relatives are great sources of material for writers. Many of Kinsey-Warnock’s books are about her life or events in the lives of family members. For example, her book, Canada Geese Quilt is about Kinsey-Warnock and her grandmother. She showed the students many of the quilts her grandmother made, including a few designed by the author. She kept the students on the edge of their seats with the true story from her book, The Bear That Heard Crying –which concerns the author’s great, great great, great, great aunt. According to family lore, at the age of three her aunt got lost in the woods and was cared for by a black bear for four days before she was found. This author visit was sponsored by the Edgewood PTA.
-Contributed by Tracy McCarthy

On October 19th, local firefighters Tyler Schultz, Greg DeSousa, Jeff Goodwin, John Brett, John Maxwell, and Michael Dwyer visited Edgewood's first graders to teach them about fire safety. The first and most important lesson they learned was to get away from the fire and out of the house as soon as possible. The firefighters said that everyone should know at least two ways to get out of their house and assign a meeting place outside where they can find their family members and call 911. Kids were instructed that if there is a fire the should wait for the firefighters to put out the fire and help any family, friends, or pets. Kids also learned that a fire needs three things to burn: an ignition source, fuel, and oxygen. To take oxygen away from the fire, the children were taught to stop, drop, and roll. After the children learned about the equipment that firefighters use, one of the fireman crawled into the room in all of his gear. Although he looked a little scary and his voice sounded different because of the mask, the children realized that firefighters are there to help them. The firefighters answered many of the children's questions, and the first graders seemed eager to attend the Fire Fair at the Crossway firehouse on October 20th.
- Contributed by Maura Lee