Community Helpers

Week five is done! Only four weeks until our fall break! Teaching at a year round school is tough in July, but once October comes around, it's all worth it! I hope all of you who have started back to school this week or will be starting next week have a smooth and fun start to the school year!

A few weeks ago we did a community helpers unit and I wanted to share some of the activities we did. We went to the fire station this week so I wanted to wait to post those pics....and trust me, you will love them! ;-) 

We used quite a few activities from my community helpers unit. We started out brainstorming different jobs we knew in our community and read my book about community helpers. The kids then traced the names of community helpers (I wrote them in myself and copied them) and colored the pictures. 

 

 

Next we talked about what the kids wanted to be when they grew up. I love that they changed their mind all the time. Kindergarteners are such dreamers! :) I hope they never lose that! First they drew a picture of what they wanted to be and wrote in the word in the blank. Here is a teacher and a horse back rider (isn't her picture amazing???)

The next day we collected data on what everyone wanted to be and graphed it.We then answered some questions (all together!) about what was chosen most, least, etc. We even did some addition and the kids did great!

 

We also talked about tools and equipment community helpers use to do their jobs including their vehicles.  The kids matched up the community helpers with their vehicle. 

My unit includes several math and literacy activities. We only had time to do two of them. During reading centers, the kids got to work on the vocabulary by playing memory. During math we were working on matching sets so the kids matched numbers with the correct set of community helpers.

 My unit also includes activities to use on a fire station or police station field trip. In kinder we go to the fire station and the kids had a blast! We actually went yesterday and I'm still recovering from the exhaustion. Before we left, I had the kids predict what they thought they would see at the fire station. The first picture says I think we will see a fire truck. The second one says I think we will see a fire truck, fire man, fire dog. I included my amazing artist again because I just cannot believe what she can draw! She said I think we will see a fire station and a fire truck.

 

  

After we returned we did three more activities. We did a scavenger hunt checklist where we marked everything we saw at the fire station. We were able to check off everything except the dog.

                                                    

Next the kids drew themselves as fire fighters....they turned out so cute! 

Finally, they drew and wrote about what they learned. This was my favorite: I learned that when you slide down the pole, it hurts.

Now, here is a little treat for you! The firefighters were so awesome and let me try on all the gear to show the kids what a firefighter looks like all decked out. It was SO HOT and SO HEAVY! The kids thought I looked so funny. They were able to come up and touch the jacket and helmet to see what it felt like. I thought it was great they talked about how even though firefighters may look scary, they are there to help you.

Enjoy this awesome pic....I'm pretty impressed with how tough I look.I do not even remember making this face....haha

 

If you are interested in my unit,  please click on the picture below! 

Jobs Unit

Well, we had Fall Break over the past two weeks so I've been extremely lazy. :) The kids came back yesterday so I'm finally getting back into the groove of being productive.

The two weeks before Fall Break we learned all about Jobs! This was def my favorite unit so far! I got most of my activities from Kinderglynn's unit on Community Helpers. It's adorable! We started out reading the ABC of Jobs by Roger Priddy.

I then had the kids complete an "are, can, have" activity about one of the jobs we read in the book.

Next I had students draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. We had a variety of careers including rock star, teacher, marine biologist, firefighter and hair dresser.

Our second study trip of the year was to a police station. We got to tour the station and ask questions of the police officer who gave us the tour. The kids had a fantastic time! After we got back to school, I had them write about what they learned. Most kids wrote about the "kid jail" since we got to go inside a holding cell. Oh geez. :)

They also learned that police officers go to school and they save animals. :)

These two remembered that there was a "jail" for kids, but also a playroom for kids when their parents volunteer at the station. :)

Kinderglynn's unit had cute paper books on both police officers and fire fighters. The kids colored the books and wrote about what they learned about the community helpers on the last page.

Toward the end of our unit I had the kids write about what they want to be when they grow up and why. They did a great job!

When I grow up I want to be a marine biologist because I love the ocean.

When I grow up I am going to be a race car driver because it is so awesome!

When I grow up I want to be a baker because I like to make cupcakes and cakes for people's birthday and like it. It is fun.

For a shared reading activity we read a poem called "In My Community." The kids circled sight words they knew and illustrated their poems.

My FAVORITE activity was having the kids illustrate a cartoon version of their future career. Then I printed out a picture of their heads and glued it on top of the picture. We made a "When I Grow Up..." bulletin board and the kids thought it was hilarious! They said they looked like bobble-heads. :)

A fun writing activity was having the kids fill out a "job interview." (Created by my awesome teammate Sam!) It was really funny to see how much they thought they should be paid. :)

To wrap up our unit, I had the kids do a take-home project where they had to interview a family member about their job. Here's a few examples:

On the Friday before break they could invite their family member to come to school and talk to the class. We had 7 parents come on Friday and the kids had a great time! We got to hear from a network engineer, an electrical engineer, an accountant, a repairman, a team lead manager at an OBGYN office, a builder, and a security guard.

Hope you enjoyed our Jobs unit! We just started our Halloween Unit (bats, spiders and pumpkins, oh my!) so stay tuned for that!