Our Community Helpers

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Our Community Helpers

• by
• Kim Goschinski
• Jessica Neuhardt
• EDE 417

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Our Community Helpers!

• Grade level 1st
• Lesson to educate the students about the
  different community helpers and the roles that
  they play in the community

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Objectives

• Students will
• Identify different community helpers
• Develop an understanding of the roles they play
  in the community
• Use technology to explore community helpers and
  their responsibilities to the community

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Activities

• Activity 1who are community helpers?
• Activity 2A trip to the fire station
• Activity 3guest speaker- police officer
• Activity 4A trip to the post office
• Activity 5which community helper would I like
  to be?
• Follow up activity

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Activity 1Who Are Community Helpers?

• Materials
• Book, All About Things People Do, by Chris Rice
  and Melanie Rice
• Papers with prompt, If I were a community
  helper, I would be, I would be _____ because
• Pencils
• Crayons
• Felt board with community helpers, uniforms, and
  appropriate props

Click to return to activities page
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Activity 1 (Cont)

• Lesson
• Teacher will read All About Things People Do to
  the class. Afterwards, during whole group
  instruction, the students and teacher will
  discuss the different types of community helpers.
• The students will then work in pairs at the felt
  board and successfully match the felt people with
  the appropriate uniform and props.
• While the students are waiting for the felt
  board, they will work individually on writing
  their response to the prompt paper and include an
  illustration.

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Activity 2A Trip to the Fire Station

• Materials
• Signed permission slips for the students to
  attend the field trip
• Pretend fireman hats for each child
• Junior firefighters badges (printed the day
  before for each child)
• Paper or note cards for each student
• Envelopes
• Pencils and/or crayons

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Activity 2 (Cont.)

• Lesson
• Students will tour the local fire station.
• They will also have an opportunity to learn about
  the fire trucks at the station.
• When the students return from the field trip,
  they will each get a fireman hat and a junior
  firefighters badge.
• The students will write a thank you note to the
  firefighter and let him/her know their favorite
  part of the field trip.
• The teacher will collect the thank you notes and
  save them for a field trip later in the week.

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Activity 3Guest Speaker- Police Officer

• Materials
• Writing paper or note cards for each child
• Envelopes
• Pencils and/or crayons

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Activity 3 (Cont.)

• Lesson
• A local police officer will visit the classroom
  and discuss with the students the many
  responsibilities that are involved with his/her
  job.

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Activity 3 (Cont.)

• When the guest speaker leaves, the students will
  write a thank you letter thanking him/her for the
  visit and telling their favorite part of the
  presentation.
• The teacher will then collect the letters and
  save them to take to the post office the next day.

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Activity 4A Trip to the Post Office

• Materials
• Thank you notes written to the police officer
  that visited the classroom.
• Thank you notes written to the firefighter for
  the tour to the fire station.
• Signed permission slips for each child to take
  the field trip.

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Activity 4 (Cont.)

• With a post office worker as a guide, the
  students will tour the post office and see what
  types of jobs are necessary to help communities
  receive and send mail.
• The students will give the postal workers the
  thank you letters that they wrote earlier in the
  week to the police officer and the firefighter.

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Activity 5Which Community Helper Would I Like
to Be?

• Materials
• DVD-Ricky's Room Community Helpers "The People
  Who Make Your Neighborhood Great
• Uniforms and appropriate props/tools that
  represents community helpers jobs

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Activity 5 (Cont.)

• Lesson
• The teacher will show the students the DVD which
  will help summarize the week and touch on
  additional community workers. In this episode of
  the PBS series, Ricky, the friendly blue
  rhinoceros, along with his little sister, Nicki,
  and his cousin, Harold, learn about important
  people in their community, including police
  officers, firefighters, mail carriers and more.
• After watching the video, the students will have
  an opportunity to dress up in their favorite
  community helpers uniforms and role play the jobs
  using provided props.

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Follow up Activity

• The follow up activity can be used to review this
  weeks lesson and the objectives.
• The activity creates a good transition into the
  next lesson on maps.

Click to return to activities page
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Follow Up Activity (Cont.)

• Materials
• Classroom computers
• Neighborhood map with questionnaire
• Pencils
• Paper

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Follow Up Activity (Cont.)

• Lesson
• The teacher will review community helpers and
  review map keys for the follow up activity.
• The students will have an opportunity to work in
  pairs on the classroom computer using the on-line
  webquest to review community helpers.
• The students will then be given a map and
  questionnaire and will work in small groups to
  answer the questions and locate a minimum of 5
  community helpers on the map.

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Links

• Miss Renees Kindergarten Pad- an online resource
  for early childhood educators, parents, and
  students, includes community poem.
  http//lilteacher.com/communityhelpers.html
• A Educational Videos- videos for home schooling,
  learning, and achievement, includes DVD for
  lesson. http//www.aplusvideorentals.com/listing.a
  sp?ID3639
• edhelper- an online resource for earlychildhood
  educators, parents, and students, includes map
  link for this lesson. http//www.edhelper.com/comm
  unity4_1_1.htm
• Scholastic community club includes interactive
  activities for students. Link also has the
  firefighters badge needed for this lesson.
  http//teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/firefighter
  /index.htm
• Webquest- an online resource for early childhood
  educators, parents, and students, includes
  interactive activities for students.
  http//homepages.ius.edu/JLOI/Community20Helpers
  20Web20quest.htm

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In My Community

• In my community you will findhelpers of most
  every kindfirefighters, doctors, teachers,
  too,police officers and vets at the zoo.In my
  community you will findhelpers of most every
  kind.

Poem from lilteacher.com